Term Of Reference

Consultancy on:-  Labor Market Assessment- Unleashing the potential of Women-UP-Women project

Background

Unleashing the potential of young women- UP-women, is a four years’ project designed to be implemented in four woredas of Sidama Regional states including Hawassa, Yirgalem, Aletawendo and Daye city administrations. The project aims to contribute to bridging the gap young women/girls face to enter in strong career paths through improved opportunities for skills training through Integrated Functional Adult Literacy (IFAL) and short-term skills training in market demanded non-traditional skills and subsequently find (self-) employment with a decent income and in women-friendly training and working environments. This will be achieved through a combination of Integrated Functional Adult Literacy (IFAL), Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) knowledge, access and services, life skills and vocational skills training, and job placement (JP) schemes, that ultimately results in a gainful income, contribute to gender transformation and dignity for young women. The project would work both with public and private training providers with a result based financing (RBF) approach and would contribute to developing their capacities.

In most areas of Sidama region entering into (self) employment for youth particularly of girls (16-17 years old) and young women (18-24 years old) who has never been to school or drooped out of school is challenging due to different complex and interrelated factors. Most have not had the chance to access education/training. For other groups, the disjointed nature of training in particularly TVET training and employment, coupled with poor quality trainings and lack of cooperative training made the skills taught by TVETs less relevant, as a result, majority of trainees end up trained in basic courses that are often saturated in the market and thus find it challenging to secure employment, and many graduates are either unemployed or under employed.

Objectives

Impact Hypothesis

Young women and girls, who have never been to school or have dropped out of the school system at an early stage have limited possibilities to enter the labour market in the Sidama region and face multiple levels of challenges as their situation is complicated with an added level of gendered barriers. Thus, imparting IFAL and technical short skills trainings through the use of outcome based financing modality leads to getting them into jobs and taking them out of the “no skill – no job – no income” poverty trap, ultimately unleashing their potential as productive citizens living lives of their choice and with dignity.

While creating field based evidence in four project sites of an innovative, cost effective, up-scalable and sustainable approach to train and employ girls and young women, and to capacitate TVETCs as well as PTPs, the issues addressed and the solutions proposed and piloted shall be considered for integration into the regional TVET strategy.

Impact statement

The UP-Women project is focused on providing opportunities for young women and girls to live a life in dignity as productive individuals contributing to positive societal transformation. Our strategy for achieving this vision is based on the following theory of change (ToC):

IF out of school (OOS), unemployed or underemployed vulnerable young women and girls in selected city administrations in the Sidama region have access to alternative education enabling them to access skills trainings , tailored to their differential needs, in institutions that are gender responsive and have the capacity to provide high quality market demanded training that leads to gainful employment, and have increased knowledge, access and use of SRH services and rights, and are linked with solidarity groups for social capital, THEN they become productive citizens that enjoy dignified lives of their choice.

This change is dependent on an enabling environment and public-private partnerships (PPP) and builds on vibrant solidarity groups and networks which create mechanisms for ongoing linkage with stakeholders, as well as for advocacy, learning and further innovation (such as digital learning and the adoption of RBF).

Goal and Outcomes

Goal: To unleash the potential of disadvantaged women and girls in Sidama region through improved knowledge and skills leading to gainful employment.

The following three outcomes contribute to reach this goal:

Outcome

Indicators/Targets

Young women and girls access training and acquire skills that lead to gainful (self-) employment

• At least 80% of the skilled graduates are employed in wage or self-employment
• Employed graduates earn on average at least 2 USD per day over a period of at least 6 months
• At least 80% of skilled graduates are certified for competence as per national or institutional framework 

Young women and girls have improved knowledge, adequate access and make increased use of Sexual Reproductive Health (SRH) services

• 80% of targeted young women and girls have increased their knowledge on SRH
• 60% of young women and girls have access to SRH
• 50% of young women and girls use SRH services

Capacity of training providers and TVET system is strengthened

• 80% of TVET providers with satisfactory annual performance
• Concerned TVET authorities and relevant agencies adopt at least five project-promoted modalities

Project strategy/approach

Working with Private Training Providers-PTP is an important approach for an innovative training. However, finding training providers with a capacity to provide the required skills in small and emerging towns could be hard. Hence supporting existing small to medium service providers, to consider training as a core of their disciplines and refine their service of training centered in learning by doing, and providing a women friendly training/work environment is an important aspect of the project. This is particularly so in areas of non-traditional skills training for young women.

Delivering a gender transformative TVET using revised curricula in market oriented fields and with a particular emphasis on those that have a high market demand, but might have been considered non-traditional sectors for women is the core element of the project for reaching its goal of empowerment through employment. The project will focus on training girls and young women who are hard to reach through the traditional education and training system. The training would also be delivered in training environments (workshops, classrooms) that are sensitive and responsive to the needs and safety of girls and young women through TVET and PTPs by building their capacities and support potential training providers with a capacity-building plan particularly in areas of employment linkages as well as gender transformation

Thus, imparting technical short skills trainings through the use of outcome based financing modality leads to getting them into jobs and taking them out of the “no skill – no job – no income” poverty trap, ultimately unleashing their potential as productive citizens living lives of their choice and with dignity

While creating field based evidence in four project sites of an innovative, cost effective, up-scalable and sustainable approach to train and employ girls and young women, and to capacitate TVETCs as well as PTPs, the issues addressed and the solutions proposed and piloted shall be considered for integration into the regional TVET strategy.

In this regard, understanding the labour market and business opportunities is vital for a demand-driven TVET system particularly of non-traditional sectors for women’s.

Therefore, a comprehensive labour market survey will form the basis for different TVET interventions and facilitate understanding of important elements of the wider TVET system, from skill areas with market demand to the types of jobs and employment opportunities available. The survey will also assess potential training providers, TVET/PTPs to find out their capacity and capability to offer quality skills training and professional courses/sectors demanded in the market. To this end, the project intends to undertake labor market survey that covers all the four woredas in Sidama National Regional State including Hawassa, Yirgalem, Aletawendo, Day through engaging consulting firms/ individual consultants with significant relevant experience and skills to undertake this survey.

The result of the survey is expected to become a basis for development of relevant provision of marked-demanded skills training in non-traditional sectors for women by TVETs and PTPs. Those skills identified as the most relevant will be prioritized for the training programme. The assessment will therefore guide discussions on the curriculum and courses offered to ensure they address certain employment gaps CAs. 

OBJECTIVES OF THE ASSESSMENT

The objective of the assignment is to identify the existing market skills the markets of Hawassa, Yirgalem, Aleta wendo and Daye that could lead girls and young women graduates to realize access to decent work/self-employment. The assessment shall focus on identifying potential skills training courses that could increase the employability and small business entrepreneurship developments among young women in Hawassa, Yiraglem, Aletawendo and Daye cities.

Specific objectives of the assessment includes:

• Identifying the most promising current and future employment and self-employment opportunities for girls and young women particularly non-traditional sectors for women in the four cities that can be filled by TVET/PTP graduates
• Identify the main/potential employers of girls and young women’s in the region/woreda (consider government, NGOs, private sector or self-employment)? Please name and give details? Where might trainees find employment after completing skills training courses?
• Recommend a compressive list of technical and soft skills (work readiness skills), arranged in order of priority based on their feasibility and relevance to market gaps:
• Identify type of training institutions- TVETs and PTPs, type of training provisions and assess the capacity (gaps) of TVET providers to deliver quality market-driven skills training for girls and young women in non-traditional sectors’. What kind of capacity gaps TVETs/PTPs encounter to provide such skills proposed by employers and propose a feasible support/capacity building plan TVETs and training institutions and firms to develop needed skills
• Assess youth Related Experiences and Aspirations: What are the characteristics of the young girls and women’s targeted by the program, and what are the aspirations, behaviors, experience, challenges and opportunities experienced? What do they feel about non-traditional occupations/sectors?
• Identify challenges faced by TVET graduates in getting employment, especially females, and provide relevant recommendations and ways of creating decent work for females.
• Review/ assess Polices/enabling factors- What policies/enabling factors facilitate/hinder girls and young women in training, skill development, financial services, (self) employment. In relation to this assess how microfinance institutions provide business loans and identify best approaches for linking TVET graduates to have access to such services? Which occupations/business areas receive good attention from MFI side?

THE SCOPE OF ASSESSMENT

The assessment covers organizations and individuals believed to be highly relevant for this for the project in different ways. Accordingly, the government line bureaus, business community representatives, youth groups, NGOs working on youth issues, and vocational training centers in Hawassa, Yirgalem, Aleta wendo and Daye cities will be touched/reached during the assessment.

METHODOLOGY:

The methodology should be combination of qualitative and quantitative, where the consultant/ firm will be given a space to come up with a sound methodology including the sampling technique that would enable meeting the objective of the assessment.

The following guiding principles should be taken into consideration however:

• Qualitative and quantitative method
• Directly interviews with key staff undertaking the project.
• Desk review of secondary data including project document and existing reports. Assessments, evaluations and previous labor market surveys.
• Interviews  with  relevant  government and  local  traders,  private companies, and service providers, youth associations, private sector association working in the regional/woredas.
• Extensive mapping of labor market needs through primary data collection employing Interviews (KII and FGD) with private sector employers, Industrial parks, previous graduates, TVET/PTPs, relevant government bureaus at region and city administration level, MFIs and industries, unskilled and unemployed youth in the market, Skilled and employed youth
• Conducted one-day labor Market workshop (debriefing at the end) for project staffs and key project actors followed by a one day planning Workshop to discuss and plan how to implement the results of the Labor Market Assessment to translate in a feasible implementation plan

Consultant deliverables

The Consultant will be responsible for the following:

• The consultant shall submit inception report before the start, and a comprehensive assessment report for review and comments after completion of the mission.
• A final report (electronic copy) and an electronic copy of all data collection tools and the labor market study data set.
• A final presentation of the overall findings to the stakeholders for validation.
• Final report provided in English, which should include but not be limited to the following sections: Background, objectives, methodology, target groups, summary of findings for each city administration, recommendation, annexes (Full list of institutional and individual contacts developed throughout the market assessment) 

DURATION OF THE ASSESSMENT

 The study is expected to start within the month of 4th  week of March 2021. The final report on the study should be submitted to HELVETAS before end of April. 

Job Requirements

Consultant profile/ Requirement

• Post-graduate degree in Social Sciences, Business, Economics, marketing or related field
• Minimum of 10 years relevant professional experience in research and labor market studies  
• Strong background and experience in data collection and analysis.
• Technical expertise in assessing issues of labor market demand and supply
• Strong knowledge of TVET programs, and the ability to draw strong and valid conclusions.
• Excellent communication and report writing skills.
• Familiarity with woredas of Sidama region  
• Well-connected to Business and Trade Associations and other industry platforms.

How to Apply

APPLICATION PROCEDURE AND REQUIREMENTS:

Candidates interested in the position are expected to provide the following documentation via email to hr.ethiopia@helvetas.org on or before March 14,2021.

• A technical proposal with detailed response to the TOR, with specific focus on the scope of work, methodology to be used and tools for KII and FGD;
• Initial work plan based on methodology outlined,
• Company profile or CV clearly states relevant expertise/experiences including a minimum of 3 references
• Detailed budget breakdown.

As part of the Consultant selection process, the best three candidates will be requested to prepare draft proposal and make a presentation to the project team to inform final decision on award of the Contract.

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted for further step