Back Career Trail Specialist

Background

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)’s Kolba Lab is looking to procure short-term services for coordinator of Career Trail component of its “Future Skills and Jobs for Armenia’s Rural Youth” project.   

UNDP’s Kolba Lab is the dedicated unit for development experiments. Since 2012, Kolba Lab has been testing and deploying innovative solutions in public service, civil society and private sector. In 2019, Kolba has officially started a new phase by focusing on citizen engagement initiatives. Kolba currently has two dimensions of programming: Future Modeling and Open Governance. The projects we currently work on are future oriented and contain experimentation and foresight ‘inside the lab’ to prepare for the upcoming changes for youth specifically in the education and job fields. The Open Governance direction strives to design solutions towards a more accountable and participatory public sector.

In 2018 UNDP launched a project on “Future Skills and Jobs for Armenia’s Rural Youth”. Funded by the Russian Federation, the project seeks to enhance opportunities of employability as well as promote self-employment and entrepreneurship amongst youth in Lori, Tavush, Shirak and Gegharkunik regions of Armenia.

The project will cover four especially vulnerable regions of Armenia and will help with (i) needs assessment and identification of future job opportunities; (ii) agile skill building among large groups of young people, especially – but not only -  in the IT sector (traditionally strong in Armenia and growing faster than the rest of the economy) and eventually (iii) set up of regional resource centers to ensure self-employment and startup opportunities for local youth – building on the results of UNDP and other UN agencies’ projects. The project results include not only positive dynamics in formal employment, but also increase in self-employment and freelance opportunities, preventing urban migration and internal brain drain inside the country. As part of the project, UNDP has conducted participatory foresight sessions in four target regions of the project, focusing on one priority area in each region. The results of the foresight sessions have produced broad regional skill maps indicating what type of human capital rural areas of Armenia will need in the upcoming 5 -10 years’ time horizon.

The overall objective of the consultancy is to coordinate the Career Trail component of the project, including mobilization, selection and recruitment of beneficiaries, identification of host organizations and monitoring of the internship process. The contractor will build the approach on the results of the foresight exercise, which helped to identify industry and development priorities for the target regions. 

Duties and Responsibilities

The objective of this post is to. The Career Trail Specialist will work under direct supervision of the Future Skills project Task Leader, with overall guidance of UNDP Armenia/Kolba Lab Lead and provide coordination support in designing and organizing strategic internship for target groups as part of the project.

Particularly, the contractor will perform the following functions:

• Map demand and supply on local labor market, collect data on recent development (in terms of crisis and post-crisis situation)
• Mapp existing businesses within the suggested domains (identified by foresight) in each target region, which could serve as host organizations for internships;
• Organize a stakeholder consultation to identify tipping points or transformative position on the way to desired future to inform a strategic deployment of specialists;
• Develop an assessment grid to identify eligible hosts among all, focusing on readiness and motivation of the business to embrace future changes;
• Carry an assessment of potential hosts through the questionnaire and direct interviews and identify host companies;
• Formulate package of suggestions on flexible employment schemes and formats
• Design customized internship strategies for each company with specific KPIs leading to transformative results (processes changed, products developed, markets expanded, partnership established, etc);
• Compile a report on specific results and analysis of all internship schemes

Main outputs:   

Payment mode:

Payment will be made on monthly basis (up to 20 days per month) upon completion of the tasks and approval of deliverables by the UNDP Future Skills and Jobs for Armenia’s Rural Youth Project Manager.

Competencies

• Community mobilization and youth engagement skills;
• Ability to communicate sensitively and effectively across different constituencies;
• Strong analytical and research skills
• Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude;
• Ability to remain calm, in control and good humored even under pressure and tight deadlines;
• Self-starter and initiator of creative and innovative ideas;
• Willingness to travel extensively to the regions where project operates with overnight stays, if necessary;
• Familiarity with web-based mailing services and contact management system;
• Creative personality and initiative taker. A team player;
• Strong organizational and interpersonal skills with ability to work under pressure within an international setting.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Degree in Social Sciences (Political Science, Public Administration, Public Policy or a related field);

Experience:

• At least 3 years of relevant experience in community mobilization or advocacy;
• Proven experience in engagement campaigns in the regions of Armenia;

Languages :

• Fluency in Armenian,  knowledge of English and Russian is an asset;

INDIVIDUAL CONSULTANTS WILL BE EVALUATED BASED ON THE FOLLOWING METHODOLOGY:

Candidates will be evaluated using a cumulative analysis method taking into consideration the combination of the applicants' technical qualifications,  experience and financial proposal. The contract will be awarded to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as technically responsive/compliant/acceptable to the requirements of the ToR and received the highest cumulative (technical and financial) score out of below defined technical and financial criteria.

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points in the technical evaluation would be considered for financial evaluation.  

Technical Criteria - 70% of total evaluation - max. 70 points

Financial Criteria - 30% of total evaluation - max. 30 points. 

DOCUMENTS TO BE INCLUDED WHEN SUBMITTING THE APPLICATION.

• Financial Proposal and Availability form: OFFEROR’S LETTER TO UNDP 
• CV shall include Education/Qualification, Processional Certification, Employment Records /Experience

General Conditions of Contract is available here: http://www.undp.org/content/dam/undp/documents/procurement/documents/IC%20-%20General%20Conditions.pdf.

Note: Please note you can upload only one document to this application (scan all documents in one single PDF file to attach).