Summary of Job:

The Learner Success Specialist is integral to cultivating a thriving and engaging learning environment for learners, reporting to the Learner Success Manager. This dynamic role focuses on empowering learners to excel by fostering positive online behaviors and preparing them for critical academic milestones throughout their educational journey. The specialist will design, deliver, and facilitate a variety of synchronous and asynchronous support initiatives, ensuring learners are well-equipped for success in our unique online learning landscape.

This role is programmatic and group-based, delivering proactive interventions that reach broad cohorts of learners and guardians simultaneously. Success depends on leveraging learner engagement data and trends to design scalable, evidence-based initiatives that directly address real learner needs. By analysing trends, creating scalable content, and facilitating high-impact initiatives, the Learner Success Specialist ensures that learners are equipped with the resilience, self-management skills, and positive online learning behaviours needed to thrive in a fully online environment.

The role works closely with the Academic Division and Support Advisors to ensure all interventions are cohesive, impactful, and aligned with the school’s learner success strategy.

Key responsibilities:

Learner success and engagement

• Facilitate group-based support initiatives that enhance learner motivation, self-management, and engagement.
• Develop and create scalable psycho-educational asynchronous support content and initiatives to effectively prepare large learner cohorts for academic milestones, foster positive online behaviors, and address emerging trends throughout the year.

Proactive learner intervention & strategy:

• Analyse grade and phase-level trends, learner engagement, and performance data to inform, refine, and plan proactive, data-driven, and scalable support and intervention strategies.
• Develop comprehensive asynchronous support content and initiatives that leverage identified trends to directly address real learner needs.
• Implement and meticulously track the success of all scalable intervention strategies.

Promoting the Learner, school, guardian triad:

• Develop and deliver engaging content for guardian webinars, actively participating to educate and empower families on effectively supporting their learners' success within our online ecosystem, including guiding them on fostering positive online learning habits and behaviors.
• Strengthen guardians' understanding of the school community through active participation in webinars and other relevant initiatives.
• Create content for, participate in, and host various engaging learner events and workshops that drive positive academic behaviours and outcomes.

Holistic school support & operational excellence:

• Collaborate closely with LearnerExperience leadership to define and manage scheduling requirements for live sessions.
• Partner with the Academic Division, Support Advisors and LearnerExperience Leadership to ensure cohesive and high-impact learner experiences.
• Participate in team planning, retrospectives, and cross-functional initiatives, bringing psycho-educational insight to organisational projects.

Innovation and AI-enabled practice

• Embrace experimentation and innovation in learner support, actively seeking ways to enhance engagement and efficiency.
• Leverage AI tools to support planning, content creation, and the development of scalable learner success initiatives.

Realities of the role:

Valenture Institute and UCT Online High School operate in a fast-paced startup environment. We are reimagining schooling, and precedent needs to be adopted only where it has proven to have great results. If you think that traditional schools have it all figured out, this is probably not the right role for you.

Collaboration is essential. We operate in highly specialised teams, and our ability to deliver an excellent learner and guardian experience is premised on our team’s ability to collaborate, value the contributions of their teammates (including those in other teams) and see the value in the “rubbing of minds”. If you do not find value in having your ideas interrogated or others weighing in on how things could foreseeably be done, you are unlikely to enjoy the role. Similarly, if you are not comfortable with other teams being accountable for different parts of the learning experience, you are unlikely to find this environment to be a good fit for you.

The LearnerExperience Division thrives on multitasking. They enjoy the pace and variety of guardian and learner engagements, monitoring multiple data points, collaborating with teams, dealing with special cases, and working on multiple systems — all in a day’s work!. If you prefer long periods of deep, uninterrupted time, you are unlikely to enjoy this role.

Providing a seamless learning experience for learners and guardians often involves a lot of backend admin. The ideal candidate would have a pragmatic understanding of the value that administrative tasks bring to bear on the experience of an end user.

As a new brand of schooling operating at the forefront of digital disruption, technical challenges do arise. The ideal candidate will have an appreciation for how necessary it is to fail fast and fail forward, learn through iterative feedback loops, and embrace the process of continuous learning. Change is constant as a result of rapid learning cycles. If consistent change gives you energy rather than drains your energy, you are likely to thrive in this environment. Similarly, if you are adept at managing yourself in a demanding environment and understand the importance of self-awareness and boundaries in your work, you are likely to do very well.

Education and Experience:

• Undergraduate degree preferred, preferably in psychology, counselling or teaching,
• A minimum of 2 years experience in a service-oriented, customer support, student support, or related role.
• Passion for education and working with youth.
• Proven ability to design and facilitate engaging, group-based initiatives for adolescents or young learners.
• Strong ability to interpret engagement trends and translate insights into scalable support strategies.
• Experience using learner or engagement data to inform programme design.
• Comfortable working in dynamic, digital-first environments and using online platforms for delivery.
• Highly organised and adaptable, able to contribute to multiple initiatives in a fast-paced environment.
• Excellent command of the English language, verbal and written communication skills, and demonstrated proficiency in telephonic engagement.
• Excellent interpersonal skills, consistently amicable and responsive in dealing with all people, both externally and internally.
• Ability to simply convey concepts, principles, and procedures via multiple channels such as email, phone, and chat.
• Understanding of technical and business processes at a high level.
• Questioning, taking ownership of, and simplifying the tasks to improve process efficiencies and achieve business outcomes.
• Availability during standard working hours.
• Must be comfortable working remotely and independently.
• Stable internet connection and UPS for load shedding.
• Police clearance.

Benefits:

• Family member discount to Valenture Institute
• Remote working
• Voluntary savings programme
• Half-day birthday leave

Equal opportunity employer:

Valenture Institute is committed to transformation and the company's Employment Equity plan will be considered during the selection process. Valenture Institute considers itself an Equal Opportunity Employer and thus aims to eliminate all forms of unfair discrimination in the recruitment and selection of staff.