Background

Albania is a middle-income country that over the past two and half decades has made a significant stride in establishing a consolidated market economy. Due to strong growth performance (annual growth rate at 6%), Albania grew from the poorest nation in Europe in the early 1990s to the status of middle-income country in 2008. Despite the growth trend, the structure of the country’s economy is dominated by small enterprises (95%), which despite having a substantial contribution in terms of both economic growth and employment have limited potential for job creation. With a narrow export and production base, and limited innovation capacities, the competitiveness of Albania’s economy is weak.

UNDP globally and regionally has built a strategic vision that recognizes the importance of creating employment opportunities as a means to addressing both poverty reduction and inequalities and exclusion. Indeed, the first outcome of the recently adopted United Nations Youth System Wide Action Plan focuses on Employment and Entrepreneurship with the intention to ensure greater opportunities for youth to secure decent work and income over the life-cycle, contributing to a virtuous circle of poverty reduction, sustainable development and social inclusion. To support the integration of various youth employment policy objectives through coordinated action, UNDP Albania, in collaboration with other UN agencies has designed and implemented several skills development / employment related interventions.

After years of experience addressing labor supply interventions, UNDP Albania’s strategic vision is to contribute to building a labour-market focused skills development system that is suited to enhance the employment and entrepreneurship aspects of the unemployed in urban and rural areas, while simultaneously addressing the skills needs of those employed in the formal and informal sectors and emerging entrepreneurs.

The ‘SD4E programme – consolidation phase’ will continue to support the Government of Albania in the national VET and Employment reform through a comprehensive approach of institutional capacity building on a macro/policy level, enabling key actors (MFE, NES/NAES and NAVETQ) to deliver coordinated and demand-driven services.

Responding to national priorities and the objectives of the National Employment and Skills Strategy, this Swiss funded intervention has the ambition to make a systemic contribution where the Albanian VET system and Employment Service supply the labour market with a skilled workforce that contributes to sustainable and inclusive economic development of the country.

To achieve the programme purpose and finally the programme goal, the programme will focus in three strategic fields that will aim to improve the governance and quality of service provision in VET and employment promotion in Albania.

Outcome 1 The institutional capacity of key actors in VET and Employment (Ministry, NAVETQ, NAES) is strengthened

Outcome 2 The employment service portfolio is based on a balanced demand-and supply-side oriented approach

Outcome 3 A standardized Quality Assurance (QA) framework is in place that improves the image of VET and fosters linkages between school and world of work

Duties and Responsibilities

The overall objective of the assignment is to support the government of Albania to establish a functional and reliable national labour market information system (LMIS). The LMIS should aim at generating, analysing and disseminating information for policy-makers and other labour market stakeholders and must be established and developed in full accordance with the National Strategy for Employment and Skills. Even though, the information on labour market in Albania is often limited to the statistics produced by individual institutions, the statistics provide an encouraging foundation to take forward a more detailed and structured LMIS. Currently, main providers are INSTAT, Ministry of Finance and Economy and Ministry of Education and Youth, though not all the data collected is made available to the public. Various organisations are currently supporting the institutions to upgrade their data collection techniques, such as provision of necessary hardware and software.  

UNDP is seeking an international consultant to support in the process of (i) the initial articulation of a concept on which LMIS development will be based on; (ii) an action plan to develop different LMIS components, including relevant capacity building measures; and (iii) clear guidance and hands-on assistance to strengthen the capacities of line institutions responsible on LMIS.

Under the overall guidance of the UNDP Programme Specialist and Programme coordinator and in close collaboration with the national institutions, the international consultant is expected to:

1.     Develop and finalize an actionable concept that addresses all relevant policy, institutional and regulatory aspects of establishing a functional Labour Marker Information System based on the particular context of Albania. More specifically, the Expert is required to:

a.     Assess the current institutional mechanisms and capacities in place (with a view to identifying ways in which institutional shortcomings can be addressed) to:
- Collect labor market related data;

-The process of dissemination of information; and 

- The role and responsibilities of relevant actors.

b.    Identify all relevant needs to establish a functional LMIS that responds effectively to different user’s needs.

c.     Collaborate and coordinate different actors and institutions that produce and utilize labour market information and analysis;

d.    Conduct a data audit to decide which data sources are the most useful for monitoring and anticipating skills supply and demand and also to reveal significant data and information gaps;

e.     Provide an overview of best practices in LMIS development applied in other countries, especially in the context of transition economies;

f.      Assess how elements of tested LMIS models elsewhere can be adapted to the particular requirements and circumstances of Albania; 

g.    Present the initial findings in a meeting with key stakeholders by the end of the field visit.

2.     Draft a fully-costed action-plan for implementation of LMIS. After the approval of the concept by the Ministry and UNDP, the Expert will be responsible for the development of a detailed action plan for implementation of LMIS:

a.     Articulate the necessary actions needed to establish and develop the labour market information system;

b.    Formulate the aims of the analysis to determine at which level the analysis has to be performed (national, regional, sectorial), the time frame (short, medium, long term), required data and regularity of updates;

c.     Propose actions and provide support to strengthen the staff capacities responsible to maintain and regularly disseminate labour market information.

d.    Propose necessary steps towards capacity building of institutional staff responsible to collect, analyze and disseminate labour market information, which includes robust training and study-visits;

e.     Propose time frame and include costing of activities needed to ensure smooth implementation of the labour and employment policy development cycle.

f.      Establish institutional arrangements in order to make the information analysis widely available, and to provide opportunities for labour market stake holders to influence the agenda of the LMI.

Deliverables

The expected deliverables for this individual consultancy will be as follows:

• An inception report which will include the institutions which will be analysed as potential sources of data for the LMIS, the type of data to be collected by each institution, different scenarios of LMIS to be adopted in Albania, types of tools needed to develop LMIS for Albania, LMIS models in other countries.
• Conduct a workshop with all stakeholders and do a preliminary presentation of the findings of the assessment conducted and the most suitable model for the Albanian context;  
• A well-defined LMIS with application/modules designed, developed and implemented responding to labour market needs; including a standard data format and data exchange mechanism between data producers and LMIS, and a detailed training plan for the responsible institutional staff.

Competencies

CORPORATE COMPETENCIES:

• Demonstrates integrity by modelling the UN’s values and ethical standards;
• Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UNDP;
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
• Treats all people fairly without favoritism.

CORE COMPETENCIES:

• Communication - Facilitate and encourage open communication and strive for effective communication.
• Planning & Organizing – Develops clear goals in line with agreed strategies, identifies priorities, foresees risks and makes allowances accordingly.
• Organizational Awareness - Demonstrate corporate knowledge and sound judgment.
• Teamwork - Demonstrate ability to work in a multicultural, multi-ethnic environment and to maintain effective working relations with people of different national and cultural backgrounds.
• Accountability – Takes ownership of all responsibilities and delivers outputs in accordance with agreed time, cost and quality standards.

FUNCTIONAL COMPETENCIES

• Knowledge and expertise of data collection techniques and tools, and familiarity with M&E concepts, etc.;
• Strong analytical skills with the ability to collect organize, analyse and disseminate significant amount of information with attention to detail and accuracy;
• Substantive knowledge of statistic using statistical packages for analysing datasets;
• Adept at queries, report writing and presenting finding;
• Political and cultural sensitivity and commitment to UNDP’s development objectives in the country.

Required Skills and Experience

Academic Qualifications

• Master’s degree in Finance, Mathematics, Computer Science, Statistic, Economics or closely related field is required;

Work Experience

• Minimum 5 years of professional experience in the field of labour market information system development;
• Substantive knowledge of data collection techniques and tools.
• Prior experience with employment / VET related programmes;
• Previous experience/familiarity with EU labour market policy context.

Language

• Full working knowledge of English is essential.

Evaluation Procedure

UNDP applies a fair and transparent selection process that would consider both the technical qualification of Individual Consultants as well as their financial proposals. The contract will be awarded to the candidate whose offer:

• Is deemed technically responsive / compliant / acceptable (only technically responsive applications / candidates will be considered for the financial evaluation)
• And has obtained the highest combined technical and financial scores.

Technical Criteria - 70% of total evaluation – max points: 70

Criteria A: Master’s degree in Finance, Mathematics, Computer Science, Statistic, Economics or closely related field: max 10 points;

Criteria B:  Minimum 5 years of professional experience in the field of labour market information system development max 20 points;

Criteria C: Substantive knowledge of data collection techniques and tools. – max 20 points;

Criteria D: Prior experience with employment / VET related programmes - max 10 points;

Criteria E: Previous experience/familiarity with EU labour market policy context – max 10 points

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

The application should contain:

• Cover letter explaining why you are the most suitable candidate for the advertised position. Please paste the letter into the "Resume and Motivation" section of the electronic application.
• Letter to UNDP Confirming Interest and Availability-please fill in the attached form...http://www.un.org.al/doc/PSU_%20Individual%20Contract_Letter%20to%20UNDP.docx
• Latest personal CV, including past experience from similar projects or completed and signed UN Personal History Form (P11) for Service Contracts (SC) and Individual Contracts (IC) – Blank form Download here.
• Financial Proposal in USD that indicates the all-inclusive fixed total contract price and all other travel related costs (such as flight ticket, per diem, etc), supported by a breakdown of costs, as per template attached to the Letter of Confirmation of Interest template.  If an applicant is employed by an organization/company/institution, and he/she expects his/her employer to charge a management fee in the process of releasing him/her to UNDP under Reimbursable Loan Agreement (RLA), the applicant must indicate at this point, and ensure that all such costs are duly incorporated in the financial proposal submitted to UNDP. 
• Copy of Diplomas and copy of Passport.

PLEASE NOTE THAT INCOMPLETE APPLICATIONS WILL NOT BE CONSIDERED FOR FURTHER EVALUATION 

How to Submit the Application:

To submit your application online, please follow the steps below:

• Merge your CV or P11, Financial Proposal Letter to UNDP Confirming Interest and Availability and cover letter into a single file. The system does not allow for more than one attachment to be uploaded;
• Click on the Job Title (job vacancy announcement);
• Click “Apply Now” button, fill in necessary information on the first page, and then click “Submit Application;”
• Upload your application/single file as indicated above with the merged documents (underlined above);
• You will receive an automatic response to your email confirming receipt of your application by the system.

Due to a large number of applications we receive, we are able to inform only the successful candidates about the outcome or status of the selection process

UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence.