The role of the Learning Design Manager at Acumen is centered on shaping and delivering high-quality learning experiences, primarily targeting African social entrepreneurs, to maximize engagement, progression, and real-world impact. This role requires a blend of deep understanding of learning theory (pedagogy, curriculum development) and practical knowledge of business models, market contexts, and investment readiness in the social enterprise space.
The Manager will be responsible for ensuring that all learning programs align with Acumen Academy’s core mission of developing moral and effective leaders who drive systemic change, ensuring cultural relevance across diverse contexts.
Accountabilities
- Create user personas, define learning outcomes, and utilize extensive user research to shape programs, learning materials, and content.
- Understand the learners' business models, stage of growth, market contexts, and key barriers to scale, tailoring program design accordingly.
- Design program arcs that include sequencing learning, mentoring, funding, milestones, and events to maximize engagement and progression.
- Design programs that translate learning into tangible business, social, and systemic outcomes. Key areas include job creation, resilient business models, investment readiness, and expanded impact.
- Ensure a cohesive learning experience that aligns content, delivery, and engagement methods with the needs, contexts, and learning styles of target groups.
- Ensure that all programs and learning experiences are grounded in Acumen Academy’s learning design principles and values, aligning content and delivery with our mission to develop moral and effective leaders who drive systemic change.
- Collaborate with the impact team to define and track metrics that measure engagement, learning outcomes, behavioral shifts, and the longer-term impact on learners’ work or communities.
- Integrate feedback loops and data collection processes to continually refine and improve the program.
- Create experiences that maximize the development of “social capital” through interactions among participants, mentors, experts, and investors, thereby strengthening the ecosystem surrounding each venture.
- Where necessary, adapt Acumen Academy’s existing content and curricula to ensure they align with the cultural, professional, and geographic contexts of the target group.
- Where necessary, design and produce new materials, ranging from modular e-learning content, workshops, practical assignments/tools, facilitated immersive experiences, and mentoring/coaching.
- Identify and support the management of suitable subject matter experts and relevant third-party business development support providers to bolster learning programs.
- Support the program delivery teams with learner troubleshooting and identify areas where the learner journey could be improved.
- Work collaboratively across internal functions, including with the marketing team, to ensure brand compliance of any new content created.
Skills and Qualifications
Essential Requirements:
- A minimum of 8 years of professional experience.
- At least 3 years of experience designing or delivering programs for African social entrepreneurs.
- BA/BSc/HND qualification.
- Proven experience with learning design, pedagogy, curriculum development, content production, and facilitation.
- Experience setting up large-scale mentoring programs.
- Experience in co-creating with third-party delivery partners, subject matter experts, and consultants.
- Detail-oriented project manager skills.
- Strong writing and editing skills.
- Critical thinker accustomed to working, problem-solving, and collaborating thoughtfully with different colleagues and personalities, at all levels both externally and internally, and across a variety of functions and geographies.
- Effective collaborator able to work with different colleagues and personalities, at all levels both externally and internally, and across a variety of functions and geography.
Preferred Experience:
- Experience working in East Africa and other regions in the continent.
- Advanced knowledge of business skills and the investment readiness process gained via experience with an accelerator or venture studio (desirable).
- Familiarity with human-centered design and lean start-up approaches (desirable).
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