REGIONAL COORDINATOR - SENIOR TECHNICAL ADVISOR M/W at GIZ CAMEROON

Akwajobs   (Yaoundé, Cameroun)

Posted : 18 November, 2019

Category : Project Management   Location : Yaoundé, Cameroun

Job type : Full Time

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A- Context 

Growing youth unemployment poses a fundamental challenge for the African continent. In total, around 60 percent of unemployed people in the region are under the age of 25 and young women are especially affected. Even though access to quality education and appropriate job opportunities are essential for the reduction of poverty, political stability, participation, and sustainable development, educational and skills development programs with a practical orientation are hard to come by in many African countries. In the same vein, there is growing demand for market-oriented skills from both the public and private sector. In just more than a decade from now (by 2030), Africa’s labour market will need to create 20 million jobs annually to absorb the continent’s growing youthful employment seeking population.

In response to these challenges the African Union Commission (AUC), AUDA-NEPAD and the German Development Cooperation have initiated the Skills Initiative for Africa (SIFA).  The Skills Initiative for Africa promotes occupational prospects of young Africans through the support of innovative skills development programs and a close cooperation with the private sector as an integral and key stakeholder in the creation of jobs.

To this end, SIFA seeks to partner with the Business Community, through cooperation with apex national, regional and continental business organisations, to find meaningful ways by which to engage to realize the delivery of quality and relevant educational programs. In addition, this cooperation will yield upscaling of practically - oriented skills development and training initiatives to prepare youth at all levels for employment and entrepreneurship opportunities across the continent. Furthermore, the partnership envisions the establishment of innovation hubs, industrial parks linked to universities and research, venture funds, as well as the development of a variety of mentorships programs for the youth. Implementation will be guided through application of the SIFA Private Sector Engagement framework, which provides guiding criteria to support process facilitation for upscaling public-private sector partnerships, for improved youth employment, employability and entrepreneurship outcomes. The underlying value preposition of SIFA Private Sector Engagement framework, is to facilitate an Ecosystem Engagement approach as strategy to rally private sector participation in the implementation of shared objectives and thereby facilitate and sustain systematic engagement with a diversity of key ecosystem stakeholders to achieve inclusive job and wealth creation for African youth.

 

Consequently, the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), on behalf of its implementation partners, the AUC and AUDA-NEPAD, seeks to employ a suitably qualified, motivated, and innovative individual for the position of a Senior Technical Advisor for the management and facilitation of private sector partnerships with the TVET sector and other key stakeholders for employment-oriented skills development.

 B- Main Duties / Responsibilities

• Promote SIFA objectives and ensure alignment to the existing policy framework for national skills development; and relatedly facilitate anchorage of SIFA objectives/national plans within existing national public-private/private-private sector platforms and programmes; as well as regional wide related initiatives.
• Identify current and future needs in skills from regional and domestic enterprises and propose ways to fill the gaps.
• Contribute to current initiatives of the main stakeholders in terms of skills improvement of the workforce.
• Inaugurate and facilitate partnerships between the private sector and training institutions to ensure demand-oriented skills development.
• Collect and disseminate Good practice examples on national, regional and continental level to foster the knowledge exchange between all stakeholders.
• Steer and facilitate discussion virtually on African Skills Portal for Employment and Entrepreneurship (ASPYEE) as part of policy development and advocacy and the development of service products for AU member states
• Convene multi-stakeholder participatory workshops at the national, regional and continental levels to bring TVET and higher education institutions, government, and the private sector as well the youth themselves, together to discuss collaboration and share experience in skills development and entrepreneurship program implementation (Afrika talks Jobs/ Africa create jobs)
• Undertake scoping of projects relating to transformative initiatives which promote innovative skills development, employment accelerators, future of work and enterprise development for youth as well as private-sector led labour market information systems;
• Support national actors (private sector, local technical and vocational educational institutions, higher education institutions, government, civil society and development partners) to develop national skills development partnership action plans; attendant results framework to monitor and evaluate progress
• Design and undertake research and report writing
• Support an additional 1-2 countries within the region to set- upsimilar engagements through sharing of lessons and exchange
• Support the development of national political frameworks and governance around
• Strengthen the capacities of the different stakeholders around the governance of TVET.

Required qualifications, competences and experience

Qualifications:

An Honours degree (Masters preferred) in one of the following fields:

• Education, development studies, political science, business administration, project management, employment or equivalent

Professional experience:

Candidates should have skills and experience in the following areas, and be able to demonstrate a track record of at least 7 years in one or more of these:

• Experience in the field of Skills Development/TVET/employment/private sector engagement; business administration, development economics, development studies, employment and labour market assessment.
• A high level/strategic thinker with evidence of meaningful contribution to development planning acquired over a long period;
• Demonstrated ability to work on complex development related issues;
• Experience and track-record working with private sector and/or private sector organizations;
• Proven excellent report writing and Strong communications skills – verbal and writing;
• Demonstrated skills in project management, business negotiation, and working with institutional leaders (public sector, private sector, civil society, development partners);
• Experience coordinating/ facilitating multi-stakeholder workshops;
• Regional travel experience in the target region;
• Ability to be a self-starter and work productively with limited on-site supervision, and minimal administrative support;
• Resident with a valid work permit in the country hosting the regional SIFA Program Coordination Office;
• Technical expertise in generating internet platform and innovative media presentations;
• Understanding of international development cooperation; work experience in advising partners and developing concepts jointly with partners (preferably AUC/AUDA-NEPAD) will be an advantage;
• Proficiency French and English

Expected starting date: January 2020

Assignment Period:          one year renewable

Place of employment:Yaoundé

Closing date: 22.11.2019

Internal Classification: Professional 4T, Reports to the SIFA Secretariat Team (AUDA-NEPAD and GIZ), for guidance and technical leadership; to the GIZ local country Office on logistic ans administration; and to the Business Africa respective in-country anchor partner organisation for oversight along agreed implementation plans

Application submission:Interested and suitable applicants should forward their applications including a detailed Curriculum Vitae (maxi 2 leaves), a one-page cover letter addressing the applicant’s motivation and three (3) professional references via the GIZ-CM online recruitment platform : https://gizkamerun.jobs.net

Feminine candidates are strongly encouraged!

Important note: Only GIZ internal candidates who are citizens or holders of Permanent Residence IDs of Cameroon will be considered.Recruitment at GIZ is not subject to any fees. Any fraudulent information detected will result in the elimination of the application of the current and future recruitment process. Only selected candidates will be contacted. Unsuccessful files will be destroyed six months after the date of publication.

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