Background
“Creating Employment and Entrepreneurship Opportunities for Women in India” (Disha) is a multi-year partnership project between United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and India Development Foundation (IDF), supported by IKEA Foundation. Project Disha aims to reach out and enable one million underprivileged women in India through training, employment and entrepreneurship skills development, as well as development of a new model of public private collaboration that can be adapted and replicated across India.
As per the evidence available, the smaller urban centres in India are receiving traction in terms of employment sourcing. However, their full potential is not being realised because of the gap that exists in these cities/towns between the employers’ expectation from the candidate and the aspirations’ understanding of the eligibility and their knowledge about the current market scenario, latest industry and employment trends and job dynamics etc. Similarly, the employment market place in these smaller urban centres is highly informal in nature leading to informal employment, low wages, sub-optimal working conditions and lack of access to social security support such as health insurance, Provident Fund and pension. Thus one of the key programme verticals under the Disha Project relates to roll out of an enabling ‘employment market place model’ particularly in Tier2-5 cities and towns in Disha partner states.
The ‘employment marketplace’ envisages the following elements:
- An institutional mechanism which could guide women job aspirants with regard to vocational choices and options in line with their aspirations and qualifications. This may involve use of psychometric tests. Such preparatory steps are expected to reduce the large drop-out rates witnessed on account of expectation mis-match.
- A mechanism for imparting soft-skills to candidates given their important in the job accessing process and beyond.
- A mechanism for guidance to those who need hard skills.
- A mechanism for making robust demand and supply projections including from the smaller local businesses.
- Opening up modalities such as apprenticeship under the National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme (NAPS 2015).
- Organising a regular calendar of processes where candidates and employers could interact in a non-threatening environment.
Thus it is clear that the ‘Employment Marketplace Model’ envisages a multi-stakeholder partnership that includes local employers/other employment sourcing agencies, skilling institutions including SSCs, universities and other educational institutions, and the local governmental agencies which can dovetail the concerned government programmes.
Currently 10 Youth Employability Services (YES) Centres are operational under the Disha Project which could serve to anchor the employment market place. This footprint is likely to grow through inclusion of institutions such as Employment Exchanges. Further, under Disha a few state-wide ICT-supported programmes have been taken up to provide end to end solutions from mobile-based pre-counselling to linkages with the right skilling opportunities and placements. Disha has set for itself the target of guiding 75,000 women to suitable skilling opportunities and securing jobs/apprenticeship s for 50,000 women through the above mechanism.
In the light of the above, UNDP intends to engage an Expert to drive the Employment Market place model. The Expert will work under the overall leadership and guidance of the Chief, Skills and Business Development and will be responsible for leading this programme vertical to successfully operationalize the Employment Marketplace Model across the existing (and new) YES Centers and selected Employment Exchanges with a view to achieving the skilling and employment targets outlined above. The Expert will be based in the Disha programme unit of the UNDP India in New Delhi.
Duties and Responsibilities
- Development of the overall strategies for the roll out of the Employment Marketplace Model.
- Development of a SOP for the Employment Marketplace.
- Development of a Score Card for regular online monitoring of the performance of individual marketplace initiatives.
- Provision of technical support for demand and supply projections on employment and derived demand on skilling.
- Identification of a suitable model for soft skill training and create institutional mechanism for its roll out.
- Creation of a suitable local management structure to ensure local ownership and goversight.
- Building the multi-stakeholder partnership (agencies with employment potential including local business firms, skilling agencies, with universities and other educational institutions, and local government institutions).
- Any other related duties assigned
Expected Deliverables:
- Strategy for the up-gradation of the 10 YES centers and their roll out to achieve the target set (75,000 women linked to suitable skilling opportunities and jobs/apprenticeship secured for 50,000 women) over one year.
- Regular progress reports and course correction advisories towards achievement of the above targets.
- Identification of fresh opportunities for the expansion of this modality.
- Creation and dissemination of knowledge products for the replication of this modality.
Competencies
Functional Competencies:
Building and managing strategic partnerships
- Identifies common interests and goals and carries out join initiatives with partners
- Establishes, builds and sustains effective relationship, partnerships and alliances with private sector, foundations and other agencies
- Makes effective use of resources and comparative advantage to strengthen partnerships
Advocacy
- Brings visibility and sensitizes decision makers to relevant emerging issues
- Uses the opportunity to bring forward and disseminate materials for advocacy work
Client Orientation
- Demonstrates an understanding of client / partner / donor perspective and strives for high quality client oriented services
- Establishes smooth relationship and enabling environment between clients and service providers
Leadership and Management
- Is results driven and solution oriented, is able to work under pressure
- Ability to identify problems, propose solutions and take immediate corrective measures
Organizational Learning and Knowledge Sharing
- Generates new ideas and approaches, researches best practices and proposes new, more effective ways of doing things
- Documents and analyses innovative strategies and new approaches
Results based management
- Plans and produces quality results to meet established goals
- Demonstrates ability to generate innovative, practical solutions to challenging situations
- Ability to work independently and with minimum supervision
Required Skills and Experience
Applicants shall demonstrate sufficient capacities to carryout activities to a high standard. The successful applicants will have:
- At least a Master’s Degree in social science, development studies, business management or relevant field;
- A minimum of 5 years’ experience in a mid-mangement level of responsibility in conducting research studies/preparing training modules/assessing labour markets and managing projects at the state or national level.
- Experience in development sector/gender/livelihood, skill development, enterprise development and/or related fields is desirable.
- Strong private sector contacts, across different sectors, and business type (SMEs, MNCs etc.) with exposure to CSR
- Experience in engaging with senior management at private corporates;
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills;
- Strong interpersonal skills, networking and managerial capacity;
- Ability to multitask and monitor several projects on a regular basis;
- Ability to take initiative to develop new strategies;
- Excellent inter-personal and technical communication (oral, written and visual) skills with high level English language writing skills are essential;
Core skills:
- Sound knowledge of partnership management tools and instruments and utilises these regularly in work and assignments
- Strong evidence of resource mobilization experience in the development sector
Travel:
The consultant will undertake travel to consult with the state governments, industry and the civil society after getting travel plans approved by the Chief, Skills and Business Development, UNDP.
Evaluation Criteria:
The award of the contract shall be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as Responsive to the requirement. Having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation.
Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points (70% of the total technical points) would be considered for the Financial Evaluation;
• Technical Criteria weight - 70%;
• Financial Criteria weight – 30 %
Technical Criteria (70% of total evaluation)
- Prior work experience with training partners in the skill development sector/ private sector/ bilateral/multilateral agencies with exposure to CSR or other funding – 10%
- Knowledge of skill development tools and preparing training modules/assessing labour markets and managing projects at the state or national level - 30%
- Experience in engaging with senior management in the private sector/Government/ bilateral/multilateral agencies and demonstrates ability for resource mobilisation in the past - 20%
- Demonstrated ability to multitask and monitor multiple projects - 10%
Financial Criteria:
(30% of the total evaluation) based on the total all-inclusive lump sum amount for professional fee for tasks specified in this announcement
Submission of Proposal
Financial Proposal:
Consultant should specify his/her lump sum consultancy fee. Please quote your professional fee only. Do not include travel costs in your financial quote as these will be reimbursed separately, as per actuals, subject to UNDP’s prevailing rules.
Note:
- Any kind of miscellaneous charges i.e. internet, phone, relocation charges etc. would not be reimbursed;
- Travel, lodging and boarding as per UNDP rules subject to prior approval
- Individuals working with institutions may also apply, contract would be issued in the name of institution for the specific services of individual
- Please note proposals without financial proposal will not be considered.