Project Specialist – Social Enterprise Start Up

Project Specialist – Social Enterprise Education Start-up

Alsama is a disruptor in refugee education: we provide secondary education for teenagers in Lebanon and develop innovations that change the landscape of education worldwide. – learn more through our video

Context for this role:

Alsama UK and Alsama USA are sister organizations of the Alsama Project, which is headquartered in Lebanon. Each organization is registered and governed in its respective country, with oversight provided by three different boards of trustees. This post’s functional location is in Beirut, Lebanon while being managed and governed by Alsama UK.

Alsama UK is launching a tech-enabled education social enterprise, one that:

• Will increase university/employment access for talented refugee youth
  • Is innovative and supported by technology (AI in education)
  • Set to scale across the Middle East initially, and then globally quickly

The vision: We aim to transform 50,000+ lives each year.

• Today, half a million refugee youth are lacking a high school certificate, even if they have the relevant academic & intrinsic capabilities.
  • Why? Many have informal, incomplete, or disjointed education. Without a recognised certificate, those youth get excluded from a path to jobs and universities.
  • Alsama has developed a solution that we will launch in just 18months (2026):
    • What is it? The solution is an exam that allows a young refugee to prove they are just as capable as a formally-educated high school graduate.
    • Who will it help? Goal is 50,000 refugee youth globally each year, starting with a small pilot launched in 2026 in Lebanon.
    • As with any such solution, it is the centre of a non-profit social enterprise.

Alsama UK has already made significant progress: We have a prototype, a network of experts, universities, and advisors. We now need to refine our strategy, tech-ify, and scale. As with any social enterprise, we aim to be financially sustainable as early as possible, aiming to breakeven by 2030.

Key impact in this role:

1. Refine the strategy for the G12++
2. Secure Seed Grants to scale the business
3. Prove concept of the exam, engaging global education experts and talent
4. Secure informal & formal validation internationally & locally for the exam
5. Generate demand for the G12++ by universities and employers
6. Reach refugee youth via NGO partners at scale on trajectory to >50,000 p.a. in 2040
7. Coordinate a team of talented G12++ staff to deliver on the above

In more detail, your activities for the first 2 years:

• Action: Enhance and adjust the existing business model, funding strategy, and scaling strategy
• Secure Seed Grant “investments” to develop & accredit the exam and scale the business
• Action: Pitch & apply to funders for Seed Grants and secure Seed Grants, to ensure we are financially healthy & cover our launch costs
• Prove concept of the exam, upholding rigorous “product” quality
• Action: Prove that the exam is a valid and reliable gauge of secondary-school capabilities for displaced youth, through beta-testing and further exam development
• Secure informal & formal recognition internationally & locally for the exam
• Action: Ensure that our exam is accredited as a diploma, and then recognised in countries where our universities & NGO partners are, as well as locally
• Generate demand for the G12++ by HEIs and employers
• Action: Strengthen existing (and develop new) relationships with universities / employers, so they can use the exam as part of admissions / recruiting tools for refugee applicants
• Reach exam candidates (“customers”) at scale, through education-focused NGOs.
• Action: Strengthen existing (and develop new) relationships with NGO collaborators, so they can deliver the exam to displaced youth and prepare them for it
• Coordinate with Head of G12++ to manage team of talented G12++ staff to deliver on the above
• Action: Coach and guide others, including developing talent, growing team in line with business performance & need, and ensure high quality of team outcomes

Who you will work with:

• Directly report to: Alsama Trustee, leading G12++ Certification
• Directly work with: G12++ staff (currently a rotating team of 1-2 interns)
• More broadly engage with: Alsama CEO, Alsama Strategy & Development Team, G12++ Advisory Board (senior global group of 6 people)

Profile:

We are seeking a Project Specialist to lead this from an early start-up to become a financially sustainable global scale-up.

This is a senior role requiring someone who is:

• a visionary with long-term focus
• entrepreneurial (persistent, adaptive, risk-tolerant, and decisive)
• outcome-oriented, productive, and gets stuff done
• self-motivated and independent
• able to mobilise others around them
• committed for at least 2 years

Skills

• Proven ability to convert creative, visionary, long-term strategic concepts into tactical, pragmatic implementation
• Appetite and energy for entrepreneurship, persisting through challenges by adapting to changing needs and context, identifying and mitigating risks without being paralysed them
• Evidence of problem-solving to smartly navigate “unchartered territory”
• Demonstrated structured and analytical decision-making, including using quantitative metrics to guide decisions
• Proven independence and self-driven momentum to deliver tangible outcomes, constantly making forward progress even through challenges
• Comfort balancing multiple workstreams / priorities simultaneously
• Demonstrated ability to mobilise others around them with a strong sense of collaboration, across wide range of stakeholders (seniority, sectors, cultures/nationalities)
• Clear, structured, and compelling communication (both written and verbal)
• Fluent in productivity tools (e.g. Excel, PowerPoint, similar)
• Fluent in English; Ideally (but not necessarily), competent in Arabic

Experience

• 4+ years of successful work experience, ideally in the private sector
• 2+ years of project management, ideally (but not necessarily) in an education-related start-up environment
• Ideally, 1+ year of managing/leading a team
• Ideally, success in fundraising (whether investments in private sector or donations in charity/NGO sector)