Youth Employability - Consultant, Athens- Greece, 5 months (Open to Greek Nationals only)

Contract

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UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential.

Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone.

And we never give up.

For every child, results

The economic crisis and related austerity measures have created serious socio-economic challenges for Greece for over a decade. This is reflected by the increased rate of children and young people at risk of poverty or social exclusion. Greece had the highest rate of youth unemployment (15-24 years old) in 2019, ranking it last against the EU-27 group. The percentage of the population aged 15 to 29 years old who are neither employed nor involved in education or training (NEET) remains high, at 17.7% (EU-27 average: 12.6%). Youth unemployment affects more the most marginalized, including adolescents and youth in institutions, those with refugee / migrant or minority background. According to European Skills Index, Greece ranks last on skills mismatching and 26th out or 31 countries on skills development, while the Vocational Education and Training System is characterized by low attractiveness. The COVID-19 pandemic and related global recession have further exacerbated the socio-economic challenges young people face, which put at risk many of the gains made in recent years to advance young people’s opportunities. Vulnerabilities of marginalized communities and children will increase as people struggle to piece back their lives.

In this context, UNICEF, in partnership with European Commission DG Employment, embarked a multi-country catalytic initiative called Child Guarantee, in an effort to address child poverty through enhanced protection, education and social and economic inclusion. The overall objective of the initiative is to ensure that children and young people in Greece, including children in migration, children with disabilities, and children in institutional care, improve access to family and community-based care, support services to ensure future opportunities for employment, and inclusive education, thus reducing their risk of poverty and social exclusion.

Within this initiative, UNICEF is developing a comprehensive program for job readiness and transition towards adulthood supporting social and economic inclusion for adolescents and youth at risk, including unaccompanied children and children with complex needs. The program aims to provide alternative pathways and tailor-made solutions to enable vulnerable young people to access employment opportunities.

More specifically, the program will include:

• Building or upgrading basic skills (literary, numeracy and digital skills), integrating life skills development (such as communication, teamwork, goals setting, empathy) of young people, with a focus on the marginalized ones;

• Providing active job and entrepreneurship orientation and counselling;

• Providing customized vocational-hard skills training, including apprenticeship and internship and based on a labour market needs assessment;

• Connecting young people with quality work opportunities, while equipping them as problem solvers, contributing to a better world.

While facilitating this initiative, UNICEF aims to strengthen technical capacity of OAED so that it effectively contributes to building young people’s employability skills, to fostering more quality employment opportunities and to reducing unemployment in Greece.

How can you make a difference?

In line with UNICEF’s mandate, UNICEF is seeking to recruit a Youth Employability Expert to be seconded in OAED. The Youth Employability Consultant will provide technical assistance to OAED in the following tasks, using the latest UNICEF guidance for content and quality:

1. Coordinate the situation and bottleneck analysis on marginalized youth’s social inclusion and employability, which will be integrated in a market feasibility study and skills-needs assessment to inform design of the program and closely collaborate with the entity that will undertake the above-mentioned study.

2. Support the development of assessment and matching tools and, based on the bottleneck analysis, propose processes to support the connection between the labour market needs and the interest of marginalized adolescents and youth, including those with disabilities or special needs, adolescents and youth with complex needs on families or in institutional care, or the ones with a refugee, migrant or minority background.

3. Support OAED in creating a wide range of alternative upskilling, training, job readiness and entrepreneurship programs for marginalized adolescents and youth, based on the labour market analysis and skills assessment.

4. Ensure the efficient and quality implementation of such programs, enabling participants to acquire transferable (basic, soft and hard) skills needed for future work, through active, participatory methodologies.

Support the bridging of apprenticeship and internship programs with private sector employers and ensuring related follow up support to promote job retention.

6. Provide technical support on curricula, materials and trainers guides as well as on the planning and implementation of workshops, coordination and exchange meetings.

7. Monitor the program implementation, having in place risk analysis developed in the planning phase, and provide regular updates on progress towards agreed results, ensuring that all stakeholders are informed on the progress.

8. In close collaboration with OAED and UNICEF, contribute to the development of a sensitization plan for employers in order to better receive marginalized young people in apprenticeships and/or job posts, while ensuring that voices of adolescents and youth are heard and that they are integrated in job or apprenticeship posts in the best way, respecting their needs and interest.

9. Contribute to the development of a policy proposal, that will ensure scale up and sustainability.

Outputs and Deliverables

Τhe Youth Employability Expert will deliver:

DELIVERABLE

DEADLINE

1. Inception Report, including a situation analysis, specific suggestions to inform the customized design of the program and a work plan for the implementation of the program

February 2021

2. Interim Report, including a. review of modules in place, education resources’ quality, facilitators’ support, adolescents’ and young people’s involvement and participation, enterprises’ engagement and b. suggestions for improving the overall efficiency and quality of the program

July 2021

3. Final report, including lessons learnt during the first year of implementation, suggestions for improvement and a proposal to inform a. scale up and sustainability of the initiative and b. the discussion on strategies/policies for youth employability development

December 2021

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…

• A Masters’ Degree in Social Sciences, Education, Lifelong Learning or other - related with the program’s priorities-field;
• • At least 3 years professional experience as a coordinator or working group member in programs on employability, vocational education or training, job counselling, including at least 1 year in support of vulnerable / marginalized Groups;

• Capability to promote a vision and act as active listener, promoting collaboration and networking of different stakeholders and actors;

  • Demonstrated ability to work in a multi-cultural environment and establish harmonious and effective working relationships;

  • Ability to work with professionals from other disciplines to ensure synergies in various parts of the programme;

  • Ability to identify needs, risks and gaps, and to propose innovative ideas and effective responses on challenges.

  • Ability to promote results-based management and guide continuous goals’ assessment

• Fluency required both in Greek and English (oral and written).

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF's values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, and Accountability (CRITA) and core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results.

View our competency framework at

http://www.unicef.org/about/employ/files/UNICEF_Competencies.pdf

Work Place and Supervision

The Youth Employability Expert will be based in OAED (Athens) and will work under the daily guidance of OAED staff, with regular weekly supervision by UNICEF staff, providing monthly reports to UNICEF.

Travel

The Youth Employability Expert may need to travel one or more times to facilitate in-country workshops, including with external stakeholders. Travel expenses will be reimbursed to the Education Expert (Individual Contractor) according to the UNICEF Rules and Regulations.

Estimated duration of the contract and proposal

The duration of the consultancy is from 15th January 2021 until 31 December 2021 (11,5months).

Payment schedule, and other charges

Consultancy fees: Please indicate your ability, availability and gross daily/monthly rate (in US$) to undertake the terms of reference above (including travel and daily subsistence allowance, if applicable). Also, please mention the earliest date you can start. The final rate will be communicated to the candidate upon recommendation by the selection panel

Payment schedule: Payment will be made on a monthly basis, based on the agreed deliverables and the submission of monthly progress reports to UNICEF by the consultant, upon approval by the direct supervisor. Monthly progress reports will be brief, produced in English and summarize key activities, achievements and challenges faced during the reporting period, priorities for the next reporting period, highlighting any support needs from or recommendations for UNICEF. UNICEF reserves the right to withhold all or a portion of payment if performance is unsatisfactory, if work/outputs is incomplete, not delivered or for failure to meet deadlines. All materials developed will remain the copyright of UNICEF and UNICEF will be free to adapt and modify them in the future.

HOW TO APPLY

Applicants are invited to:

a. Complete their UNICEF profile

b. Attach latest P-11 History Form, CV and Motivation Letter (http://www.unicef.org/about/employ/index_53129.htm))

The budget for this assignment is subject to the availability of funds.

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages all candidates, irrespective of gender, nationality, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of the organization.

UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.

Remarks:

Mobility is a condition of international professional employment with UNICEF and an underlying premise of the international civil service.

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.

Individuals engaged under a consultancy or individual contract will not be considered “staff members” under the Staff Regulations and Rules of the United Nations and UNICEF’s policies and procedures, and will not be entitled to benefits provided therein (such as leave entitlements and medical insurance coverage). Their conditions of service will be governed by their contract and the General Conditions of Contracts for the Services of Consultants and Individual Contractors. Consultants and individual contractors are responsible for determining their tax liabilities and for the payment of any taxes and/or duties, in accordance with local or other applicable laws.