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. The project activities are implemented across four states of India viz. NCR Delhi & Haryana, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Telangana. The project works in close partnership with GOI Ministries and departments, public and private organizations especially skilling institutes, employers and livelihood organizations to facilitate job placement and entrepreneurship activities among young women.
A survey carried out by Ernst and Young across the five partner states during the Scoping Phase of Disha (January-September 2015) showed that women from the marginalized sections had not gained from the momentum in skill development, employment and enterprise development programmes due to a crippling gap in information about such opportunities. Between 50-75 percent of the respondents in Mumbai and Delhi respectively (with those Hyderabad and Bangalore falling in the middle) pointed to such information gap as a barrier. The baseline was in fact so severe as to stunt the very aspirations of women towards career opportunities thereby diming prospects of investments towards it through pursuit of education and skill development. Pratham Foundation’s Annual Status of Education Report (2017) captures the scale and human ramifications of this poignantly.
A study by the McKinsey Global Institute shows that often there is a difference between the aspirants’ understanding of the eligibility and the employer’s expectation from the candidate. This problem is profound while hiring candidates from tier 2 and tier 3 cities where candidates are not suitable to take-up any particular responsibility though they possess the necessary academic qualifications. Students are unaware about the emphasis that companies place on soft skills apart from the technical knowledge. Lack of industry knowledge, latest employment trends, job dynamics and inadequate hands-on experience affects the students’ prospects at all stages.
The Disha project is implementing a series of initiatives under the bridging the information gap (BIG) programme vertical to pilot career guidance and counselling in government schools and colleges to enable girls. Going forward, the focus will be on the intuitional aspects of mainstreaming career guidance and counselling in government schools and colleges in Disha partners states. The content and structure of career guidance and counselling will be specific to the educational segment being targeted. Some initiatives addressing the needs of those outside the educational system will also be designed in implemented.
These initiatives require partnership with a range of institutions including the private sector that will be a key resource with respect to employability aspects such as internship and apprenticeship opportunities. Also, international experience needs to be leveraged through suitable international collaboration.
Considering that the scope of the project is manifold and extends beyond traditional partners/sectors, project Disha seeks to engage a senior Consultant to provide guidance to the State team in designing of innovative pilots/activities and implementation of pilots. The CC Expert will be based in the Disha programme unit of the UNDP India in New Delhi.
Duties and Responsibilities
The Career Counselling Expert will work under the overall leadership of the Chief, Skills and Business Development and the guidance of Senior Programme Advisor, Disha Project in the establishment of a CGCC model that can be brought to scale in partnership with the partner State Government and the private sector. The Expert will
- Develop of Disha’s CGCC portfolio and finalization of the implementation strategy with a focus towards the institutionalization of career counselling and guidance in schools and colleges in partner states;
- Provide technical guidance to develop and finalize key components in the career guidance portfolio/ model such as psychometric tests, counselling, training on soft skills, exposure to the world of work etc.;
- Facilitate creation of e-resources to support both counsellors and students;
- Coordinate efforts with the Disha State teams and other thematic experts for building linkages with the programme areas and the pilots implemented;
- Develop monitoring strategy including support for the same within the educational system in partner states;
- Prepare overarching documents/briefs and contribute to Disha’s advocacy efforts to engage with institutions at national and state level;
- Build the multi-stakeholder partnership (agencies with employment potential including local business firms, skilling agencies; universities and other educational institutions; and local government institutions);
- Mobilize of financial resources from like-minded partners through continued networking and partnership development;
- Develop and roll out of a strong strategy for the engagement of the private sector;
- Promote UN system collaboration (as career counselling and guidance is an important part of SDF for India) and international collaboration.
Expected Deliverables:
- Strategy and models/blue print in career counselling and guidance developed;
- State teams provided guidance to ensure that models are effectively implemented on the ground;
- Partnerships established with key stakeholders in government, private sector, implementing agencies to promote learnings for the career counselling portfolio of the Disha project;
- Regular progress reports prepared and course correction advisories issued towards achievement of the overall targets;
- Creation and dissemination of knowledge products for the replication of this modality;
- Identification of fresh opportunities for the expansion of this modality.
Travel:
The consultant will undertake travel to the implementing states to consult with the state teams, governments, industry and the implementing partners with approval from the Chief, Skills and Business Development, UNDP.
Competencies
Functional Competencies:
Building and managing strategic partnerships
- Identifies common interests and goals and carries out joint initiatives with partners;
- Establishes, builds and sustains effective relationship, partnerships and alliances with governments, 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, solution oriented and can 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
Required Experiences, Competencies and Skills
Applicants shall demonstrate sufficient capacities to carryout activities to a high standard. The successful applicants will have:
- Master’s degree in social sciences, development studies, business management and or rural credit/micro-financing or related fields.
- Atleast 7 years of experience in development sector/gender/livelihood, skill development, enterprise development and/or related fields.
- Experience in career guidance and counselling either with government or private institutions; and in dealing with administration/management in state schools and colleges is necessary;
- Experience working with youth, especially women is an added advantage;
- Experience in writing proposals and coordination/networking with funders/agencies for resource mobilization;
- Experience in engaging with senior management at private corporates with exposure to CSR;
- 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;
- Familiarity with the UN project implementation rules will be an added advantage.
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
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 in career guidance and counselling either with government or private institutions; and in dealing with administration/management in state schools and colleges 30%
- Knowledge of overall skill development portfolio and managing projects at the state or national level - 20%
- Experience in engaging with senior management in the private sector/Government/ bilateral/multilateral agencies and demonstrates ability for resource mobilisation in the past - 10%
- 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.
Note - Please ensure that all the documents to be uploaded should be combined in a single PDF file before uploading as the system has provision of uploading only one document.
For any clarifications, please write to ic.india@undp.org