Project Officer- Skills Development, IFAL and Youth Employment 90 views2 applications

Job Description: Project Officer- Skills Development, IFAL and Youth Employment

HELVETAS Swiss Intercooperation Ethiopia is a registered charity operating in the working areas of Rural Infrastructure, Natural Resources Management, Support to Civil Society Organizations and Local Government, Skill Development and Education, and Emergency Responses. See also www.helvetas.org.

HELVETAS Ethiopia is presently looking for motivated and competent professionals for the following position for a project entitled “UP-Women – Unleashing the Potential of Young Women” in Sidama National Regional State.

Description

The UP Women project aims to contributing to bridging the gap young women/girls face to enter in strong career paths through improved opportunities for skills training through Integrated Functional Adult Literacy (IFAL) and short-term skills training in market demanded non-traditional skills and subsequently find (self-) employment with a decent income and in women-friendly training and working environments. This will be achieved through a combination of Integrated Functional Adult  Literacy (IFAL), Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) knowledge, access and services, life skills and vocational skills training, and job placement (JP) schemes, that ultimately results in a gainful income, contribute to gender transformation and dignity for young women. The project would work both with public and private training providers with a result-based financing (RBF) approach and would contribute to developing their capacities.

·         Position: – Project Officer- Skills development, IFAL and Youth Employment

·         Duty Station: – Hawassa

·         Reporting to: – Senior Project Manager

 Job Summary

The Skills Development, IFAL and Youth Employment Officer is responsible to lead and coordinate the development and implementation of appropriate skills trainings particularly nontraditional skills and IFAL that ultimately leading to gainful (self) employment with in the UP-women project. She is responsible for planning, execution, reporting and monitoring of activities related to skills development.   S/he support site coordinators to extend coaching and mentoring support to enable young women’s and girls  to become successful in developing their own enterprises or wage employment. Moreover, the officer works in close coordination with TVETs and private training providers, IFAL centers, job creation commission, to provide technical support and input.  S/he ensures that (self) employment interventions are implemented as designed. Through monitoring, evaluation, and documenting lessons learned, s/he tracks whether interventions lead to the desired impact and, using adaptive management approaches, recommends improvements.  In addition, s/he promotes young women’s and girls’ transformation through awareness raising; sharing technology and best practices; and education, information and communication. S/he supports youth empowerment through collective action, solidarity, social inclusion, and gender equity

Responsibilities and Tasks:

    Facilitate participatory targeting and developing curricula

• Facilitate the selection of integrated functional Adult Literacy (IFAL) centers, TVETs, PTPs in project city administration through engaging stakeholders; including parents, Women, children and Youth Affairs, job creation and city administrations based on the criterion jointly developed by stakeholders
• Develop selection criteria for project participants jointly with stakeholders and subsequently revise the criteria.
• Lead and assist the project and its partners in reviewing, adapting and developing gender transformative training for IFAL curricula,;
• Lead and assist the project and its partners in reviewing, adapting and developing gender transformative training for TVET curricula,
• Lead the process of  awareness raising campaign for beneficiary registration of IFAL participants using different mechanisms; door to door promotion, women role models, community groups and/ or audio messaging,
• Facilitate the provision and delivery of training materials to IFAL centers; and ensure identified girls are provided with learning materials
• Lead the process of conducting gender transformative labor market survey for areas of non-traditional  skills training;
• Lead the process of  awareness raising campaign for beneficiary registration of TVET participants using different mechanisms; door to door promotion, women role models, community groups- audio messaging,
• Provide technical inputs and advise on skills development and education to the project manager;
• Lead and assist the project and its partners in carrying out market assessments for skills training;
• In consultation with the training providers and the project team, prepare and/or review guidelines for post-training follow-up.
• Follow up the quality of training provisions provided by TVETs, PTPs, IFAL centers through ongoing monitoring and verification.
• Follow up and support IFAL operations, TVET and PTPs  training delivery through regular visits to center and training sites, collect feedback from trainees and trainers
• Support complementary soft skills training provision through partners
• Follow up of solidarity groups to conduct saving and provide credit to members, and subsequently  form network / linkages and enterprises developed 

 Strategy development, implementation, and capacity building for young women and girls (self) employment

• Provide or facilitate capacity building and training for TVETs, PTPs and other government stakeholders
• Advise and support site coordinator  in linking youth to TVETs for technical training
• Together with project staffs, design the youth solidarity group manual and establishment and support to youth solidarity group;
• Work with institutional and organizational capacity building officer to design strategies to increase youth access to inclusive finance
• Work with TVETs and private training providers to design/review training curricula particularly in non-traditional skills that are relevant to young women for gainful employment.
• Support the establishment of youth solidarity groups to develop/grow into youth enterprise
• Work on to digitalization of l learning modules as  pilot and scaled-up subsequently
• Advice the project team to effect payment for training providers after employment verification and result based financing on quarterly basis.
• Work with TVETs and PTPs  on (self)employment linkage interventions with the private and public sectors, including internships and other approaches
• Advise TVETs and PTPs on appropriate strategies for the employment linkages in project operational areas
• Work closely with the private sector and other stakeholders to establish business relationships and understand their needs and priorities as well as opportunities for collaboration
• Engage micro, small and medium enterprises, business associations/trade unions and cooperatives in the identification of occupations and enterprise skill sets for potential non-traditional sectors for girls and young women’s

Planning, monitoring, reporting, learning and Networking

• Develop and review activity plans with supervisor and colleagues, partners, and stakeholders
• Ensure that activities are carried out according to approved plans and that corrective actions are taken in a timely manner
• Assist in preparing quality reports as required by donors and counterparts, by contributing progress reports, lessons learned, and case studies for youth livelihoods activities
• Collect and compile basic information on youth and youth solidarity groups and record youth’s progress.
• Proactively develops and maintains a robust learning platform with all grassroots stakeholders and ensure that good practices are shared widely;
• Document innovative capacity buildings activities that are scalable and achieve  systemic change
• Facilitate the active participation and building of trust with communities and other stakeholders and work closely with TVETs, youth associations, private sectors, FTCs, youth-focused government organizations, training institutes, etc. to identify opportunities for complementary support to project-supported youth
• Carry out Annual  open Skills Development & Employment  learning event
• Build relationships with youth and their parents, and other community-level stakeholders
• Ensure that all activities related to youth training are implemented with full participation of respective partners, Women, Children and Youth Affairs Offices, job creation commission, TVET agency, education and health Bureau, and other stakeholders as applicable

 Gender Equity and Diversity

• Design, promote, and/or implements training curricula and capacity building activities that take into account the needs of female youth in terms of training topics, methodologies, timing, location, and other aspects
• Ensure that gender considerations—and particularly female youth’s access to information, services, finance, and markets, as well as other aspects of women’s empowerment—are incorporated into all youth assessments and activities

Requirement:

QUALIFICATIONS

A) EDUCATION

Required:

• BSc/MSc, development studies, Economics, Marketing or other relevant field.

Desired:

• MA in Economics, Business, Rural Development, Marketing, or other relevant field

B) EXPERIENCE:

Required:

• 6 years of work experience in areas of youth, TVET trainings, skills development and education, enterprise development.
• Experience in conducting needs assessments, baseline surveys, field program implementation and business development
• Experience building capacity of community groups, local organizations, or others

Desired:

• Experience in both the private sector and NGO

C) Technical Skills

Required:

• Highly developed computer skills (Word processing, web applications)
• Excellent written and verbal communication in English
• Knowledge of business and marketing practices and operations
• Firm commitment to teamwork, gender equality, participatory approaches, and sustainable development

Desired:

• Experience with youth life skills/work readiness curricula,
• Experience in livelihoods projects
• Training planning and delivery skills

D) COMPETENCIES

Respect, accountability, courage, excellence, partnership building, commitment building, pro-active problem solving, analytical ability

This job description summarizes the main duties of the job. It neither prescribes nor restricts the exact tasks that may be assigned to carry out these duties. This document should not be construed in any way to represent a contract of employment. Management reserves the right to review and revise this document at any time.