Marketing and Communications Officer Tempo Inteiro

The Aga Khan Academy Maputo is hiring a Marketing and Communications Officer.

Purpose

The Marketing and Communications Officer will play a key role in enhancing the visibility, reputation, and community engagement of the Aga Khan Academy, while aligning with the broader communications strategy of the Aga Khan Schools. This role involves developing and executing effective marketing and communication initiatives that reflect the school’s values, achievements, and educational philosophy. This position requires managing both internal and external communications, digital and print media, social media, public relations, and promotional campaigns.

Context

The AKDN:

The Aga Khan Academy Maputo, is part of the Aga Khan Development Network which is “… dedicated to improving the quality of life of those in need, mainly in Asia and Africa, irrespective of their origin, faith, or gender… We offer healthcare, education, and parental support to help people flourish.” To help fulfil the above mission, 200 schools and four academies were established by His Highness the Aga Khan and his predecessors mainly in Africa and India. Our school opened in 2013 and follows the highly successful model established by academies in Mombasa, Kenya (2003), in Hyderabad, India (2011), and in Dhaka, Bangladesh (2022).

Mozambique:

The 1998 agreement signed between the AKDN and the government of Mozambique aims “…to bring sustained benefits and improve the quality of life for the people of Mozambique.” According to the Mozambique Government and USAID (2023) “…less than half of the population finishes primary school, and of those who do finish, only 8 percent transition to secondary school… Among children who finish primary school, nearly two-thirds leave the system without basic reading, writing, and math skills”. https://www.usaid.gov/mozambique/education.

The Aga Khan Academy Maputo:

Our school is a non-denominational, co-educational day and residential IB World School for primary and secondary students. Located in Matola, Maputo Province, Mozambique, our Academy is dedicated towards its mission of providing educational excellence.

Our Mission is to “Identify and nurture exceptional young people from any background with the potential to become effective and ethical leaders. Admission is based on merit and not on a student’s socio-economic background nor a family’s ability to pay.”

The school is focused on the following five ‘strands’: (i) ethics, (ii) pluralism, (iii) cultures, (iv) governance and civil society, and (v) economics for development, which helps to distinguish us from other IB World Schools.

AKA Maputo is currently authorized to offer the IB PYP, MYP and DP. We provide a bilingual education in Portuguese and English for students in our kindergarten and primary school, and students in the senior school are expected to develop two first languages, English plus Portuguese, Arabic, Farsi, or French, and thus aim for a bilingual diploma. Currently around 60% of our students receive some form of financial assistance.

To fulfil our mission and vision we also plan to offer the IBCP to help more local students to enter university or to follow a career path, and where their knowledge, experience and preference for learning and assessment would be catered for better than via the IBDP. We believe that this new program will move us closer to the spirit of the agreement we have with the government of Mozambique.

We also aim to develop and leverage partnerships with key external organization such as we have with ABB (Blackbulls Football Club) to help us to enrich our programmes, develop student leaders, increase enrolment and or to support student learning and wellbeing. Currently we are working on agreements with ISCTEM University, and Neurodiversity South Africa.

We intended to promote the school as a centre for academic and sports excellence to drive enrolment both in Mozambique and the wider region. We will continue to develop our sports facilities to this end with the support of additional partners.

This focus and our third-party agreements will help us to increase paid enrolments including via potential scholarships to be paid by local companies. The post holder will be expected to help to support the strong relationships with such organizations to increase the number of such enrolments.

Main Responsibilities

• Plan and execute marketing strategies to promote the school’s programs, events, and unique offerings.
• Align the school’s communication activities with the overall brand identity and messaging of the school network.
• Develop compelling content that showcases student achievements, staff highlights, and school initiatives.
• Compile and distribute weekly school newsletter by gathering content from staff, students, and the broader community.
• Serve as the main point of contact for local media and external service providers, coordinating relevant communication needs.
• Manage and grow the school’s social media presence (Facebook, Instagram, X/Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.).
• Support the regular update of website content and structure.
• Create and schedule engaging digital content (text, photo, and video) in both English and Portuguese.
• Monitor analytics to assess performance and improve engagement.
• Support planning and promotion of school events such as open days, cultural events, graduations, and workshops.
• Ensure visual documentation (photos/videos) of key events for communications purposes.
• Actively engage with the school community to collect stories and highlights for publication.
• Report to and collaborate with the central communications team at Head Office and other Academies within the network.
• Coordinate content sharing with communications teams from other Aga Khan Academies.
• Support article writing for the school website, local media, and social platforms.

Required Attributes

• Educated to degree level.
• Minimum of 2–3 years’ experience in a similar role.
• Excellent command of English and Portuguese (spoken and written) is essential.
• Strong understanding of social media platforms and digital marketing.
• Proficient in MS Office, content creation, graphic design and photography/video editing software.
• Film study background.
• Demonstrative experience of administrative work, family liaison or parental communication/liaison in a school.
• A deep understanding of, and connection with, Mozambican culture, traditions, values and society.
• Excellent interpersonal skills and the capacity to interact well and communicate effectively with students, parents, colleagues and stakeholders within a diverse and pluralistic society.
• Proven ability to administer records and other sensitive information.
• Ability to reach out to stakeholders outside the Academy and win them for the vision and mission of the school.

Other Skills and personal traits

• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills.
• Strong writing, editing, and visual storytelling abilities.
• Proactive, creative.
• Autonomous and independent working style, not requiring much supervision.
• Ability to manage multiple projects and deadlines.
• Alignment with the school’s mission and values.

Application Procedure

The application package must include:

• CV.
• Concise covering letter (no longer than two pages), specifically linking how your qualifications, experiences and attributes will position you to be successful in the role.
• List of 3 references.

We are only able to contact shortlisted applicants. In the event that outstanding applicants are identified early in the search process, we reserve the right to close the process before the published deadline. For this reason, it is important that interested candidates apply as soon as possible.

Department: Admissions

Reporting Line: Head of Admissions and Head of Academy

Position Location: Maputo, Mozambique

Status: Full-time