School Leadership Coach

What will you be doing?

The School Leadership Coach plays a central role in delivering Aprender’s mission to improve the quality of teaching, leadership, and learning outcomes in low-resource educational contexts. The role combines programme delivery, coaching, capacity building, quality assurance, partnership management, and impact evaluation to ensure that educational improvement is both effective and sustainable.

Following project assessment and due diligence, the School Leadership  Coach establishes and maintains strong relationships with clients and partners, taking responsibility for managing projects from initiation through to completion. A key responsibility is the delivery of our training programmes that enable education officers, whether from government agencies or NGOs, to become accredited Apto Coaches. Apto is our school improvement model. Through workshops, coaching sessions, mentoring, and follow-up support, the School Leadership Coach ensures that training is adapted to local needs and contexts while remaining aligned with Aprender’s Theory of Change and strategic objectives.

A significant aspect of the role is supporting school improvement through structured coaching and professional development. The School Leadership Coach works closely with accredited Apto Coaches, providing post-accreditation support and helping them develop the skills, confidence, and leadership required to drive improvement within their schools and communities. This includes conducting coaching sessions, facilitating reflection, supporting school self-evaluation, and helping schools develop and implement improvement plans. The School Leadership Coach provides both challenge and encouragement, helping education leaders identify areas for growth while celebrating progress and success.

The role also focuses strongly on capacity building and sustainability. Rather than creating dependence on external expertise, the School Leadership Coach develops local ownership of the Apto model by training and supporting education leaders and coaches who can continue the work independently. By strengthening local leadership and creating systems for ongoing professional development, the role contributes to long-term educational improvement that can be sustained beyond the life of individual projects.

Monitoring, evaluation, and learning form another important part of the position. The School Leadership Coach collects and analyses data linked to Aprender’s key impact indicators, contributes to programme evaluation and impact reporting, and identifies lessons that can improve future delivery. The role helps ensure that programme quality remains high and that evidence of impact is systematically captured and shared. Insights gained through implementation are fed back into the ongoing development and refinement of the Apto model.

Strong partnership working is essential throughout. The School Leadership Coach builds positive relationships with schools, government officials, NGOs, and other stakeholders, representing Aprender professionally and ensuring that programme delivery aligns with partner goals and expectations. The role also contributes to organisational learning and communications by providing case studies, success stories, and examples of impact that demonstrate the value of Aprender’s work.

Overall, the School Leadership Coach serves as a bridge between strategy and practice, translating Aprender’s educational vision into measurable improvements in teaching, leadership, and student outcomes. Through coaching, capacity building, partnership development, and quality assurance, the role helps create sustainable systems that enable schools and education systems to improve continuously and deliver better opportunities for children and young people.

What are we looking for?

Essential

Programme Delivery & Coaching

• Experience in teaching and school leadership at Head Teacher or Deputy Head Teacher level
• Experience in coaching staff members
• Ability to facilitate adult learning and professional development 
• Data collection, analysis, and evaluation experience 
• Previous project management experience 

Cross-Cultural Work

• Experience working in diverse or low-resource contexts 
• Strong cultural awareness and adaptability 

Behaviour Change Focus

• Understanding of how to support sustained changes in practice 
• Ability to translate theory into practical action 

Communication & Relationships

• Strong interpersonal and relationship-building skills 
• Ability to communicate clearly across different audiences 

Personal Qualities

• Humility, resilience, and adaptability 
• Commitment to Aprender’s mission and values 
• Self-motivated and able to work independently 
• A reflective practitioner

Desirable

• Experience in international education or development 
• Coaching qualification or training 
• Experience using digital learning tools  

What difference will you make?

The School Leadership Coach is a critical role within Aprender, helping to transform the organisation from a small charity delivering programmes directly into a scalable organisation that develops local leaders, coaches, and systems capable of sustaining educational improvement independently. The role sits at the heart of Aprender’s mission, ensuring that the Apto model is implemented effectively and consistently while building long-term capacity within schools and education systems.

One of the primary ways the role supports Aprender is by increasing programme delivery capacity. Through training, mentoring, and supporting education officers, school leaders, and accredited Apto Coaches, the School Leadership Coach enables Aprender to reach more schools and educators without relying solely on a small central team. This creates the foundation for growth and expansion across multiple countries and contexts.

The role is also essential for maintaining programme quality. As Aprender scales, there is a risk that delivery becomes inconsistent. The School Leadership Coach helps prevent this by providing observation, coaching, feedback, and quality assurance. By supporting educators to implement best practice and continuously improve, the role ensures that schools receive a high-quality experience and that the integrity of the Apto model is maintained.

Rather than creating dependence on external support, the School Leadership Coach develops local ownership by strengthening the skills and confidence of coaches, education officers, and school leaders. This helps create self-sustaining systems of professional development that continue long after individual projects have ended. Such an approach aligns strongly with Aprender’s commitment to empowering local partners and creating lasting impact.

The role also contributes significantly to monitoring, evaluation, and learning. Through promoting positive lesson observations, coaching records, impact monitoring, and programme evaluation, the School Leadership Coach helps build the evidence base needed to demonstrate educational improvement. This evidence is increasingly important for attracting larger funders, government partners, and strategic collaborators.

In addition, the School Leadership Coach strengthens relationships with schools, NGOs, education officers, and government stakeholders. By working closely with partners and understanding their needs, the role helps identify opportunities for growth, collaboration, and system-level change.

Ultimately, the School Leadership Coach is the bridge between Aprender’s vision and real-world educational transformation, ensuring that meaningful improvements in teaching and leadership lead to better outcomes for children and young people.

Anything else...

Time will depend on the flow of clients to Aprender. There is likely to be some times where you will be 'in-between' clients, where focus can be directed towards other operations such as research and MEL.