Technical Manager – Skills Training and Employment

Location: Hargeisa, Somaliland (including Nairobi – up to 50%)

Reports To: Director of Programmes

Coordinates With: Area managers, directors of finance and HR, security manager, programme and project managers/staff in the sector

Grade: As per SC Denmark pay scale

Context of Work

Save the Children (SC) is an international organisation that has 27 member organisations across the globe. It is united by a common mission and brand but, to some extent, has until now been working independently from country to country.

Through Unified Presence, Save the Children aims to create a stronger voice for children by unifying the operations in all countries where more than one Save the Children Member have programmes. This will result in one organisation at the national level in each country and a unified programme delivery structure for all Save the Children International Members.

The programmes of Save the Children UK, Denmark and Finland unified in Somalia in January 2010 and as a result of this and of an active fundraising strategy, at the beginning of 2011 the programme budget was over GBP 10m covering the thematic areas of protection, child survival (which includes health, nutrition and livelihoods), education and Child Rights and Governance.

SC works in all three “zones” of Somalia: Somaliland, Puntland and Central South Somalia (CSS). Due to constraints on security, and the need to liaise with UN agencies, other NGOs and donors the country office is based in Nairobi and senior managers and directors are expected to travel extensively to monitor and support programme work in all parts of Somalia that are accessible and where security threats are being effectively mitigated.

SC has been engaged in the vocational skills training and employment sector in Somalia and Somaliland for many years. Since 2005, SC is leading on a consortium of international NGOs involved in undertaking EU funded skills training and employment programme in Somalia.

In addition to undertaking other similar projects financed by DANIDA, SC is also engaged in a consortium that involves FAO, UNDP and ILO to carryout EU supported Sustainable Economic and Employment Development Programme.

In this respect, the Technical Manager position is created to help SC diversify and strengthen its work in the sector.

Job Purpose

The Technical Manager will provide overall technical management and support to all skills training and employment project currently being implemented by SC programme and its consortium partners in Somalia/Somaliland.

The manager will play a pivotal role in ensuring quality of projects, promoting and disseminating good practices across projects, documenting and disseminating achievements and lessons learned of projects internally, among partners, donors and other key players in Nairobi and elsewhere as applicable, and will seek to expand donors support through development of projects.

Key accountabilities

1. Providing Technical Management and Support

Support skills training and employment managers/staff within SC and partners to develop detailed technical project implementation plans
Provide technical support to staff and managers engaged in planning and implementing skills training and employment projects
Ensure that a baseline information and data made available for measuring progresses and achievement of projects
With the support of project managers and M&E specialist develop relevant project monitoring systems/tools and ensure that they are put in use
Lead in developing technical research methods to support analysis of project achievements, constraints and findings and to validate these
Organise periodic technical project review meetings with programme/project managers of SC and consortium partners
Lead in coordination of donor reports with project and area managers of SC and consortium partners and, in liaison with the operations and finance departments, to ensure that these are of high quality, reporting clearly on progress towards the outputs, and thus towards meeting the purpose, of the project as stated in the project proposals
Facilitate the process of monitoring and documentation of achievements and learning of the projects together with M&E specialist on a six monthly basis and disseminate findings internally and externally to consortium partners, donors and other key players within the sector
Lead on and/or participate in any evaluation of skills training and employment projects that may be undertaken based on Save the Children’s and donors’ guidance
Explore potentials for developing projects and lead on the process of writing up proposals in the sector.

2. Strategy development

On the basis of SC’s country strategy plan, experiences gained so far and thematic context analysis lead on the development of a thematic strategy plan to guide SC’s skills training and employment covering the period up to the target date for the programme to come under Save the Children International
Ensure that the thematic plan reflects SCI’s mandates and addresses issues on capacity to implement this as well as seeking to expand SC’s portfolio of work in the sector
Through development of the thematic plan to forge links between other thematic areas of work for Save the Children in Somalia. These include education, protection, child rights and governance and key aspects of child survival including nutrition and livelihoods.

3. Representation

Represent SC in skills training and employment related meetings with donors, consortium members and other international NGOs/agencies.
Represent SC in vocational skills training working group in Nairobi.
Identify potential key technical resource persons and organisations for aligning with them in advancing SC’s advocacy in the sector and secure their expertise for learning and project development. This involves seeking possibilities for forging partnership.
Serve us the primary link and work together with technical advisers of SC organisations who are members of the unified programme (Denmark, Finland and UK) for ensuring effectiveness, efficiency and harmonisation of efforts.

Person specification

Qualifications:

Post graduate degree in education, technical and vocational studies or related fields
Additional training in technical and vocational education and training is needed if the qualification is different

Experience:

At least 8 years of relevant senior level technical experience in the sector
Proven experience of developing and managing skills training and employment programmes in both the formal and informal; and institutional and private/enterprise based approaches
Proven experience skills and experience in undertaking assessments and designing/writing quality technical proposals in the sector
Proven experience in advocacy and influencing institutional, private and/or corporate donors
Experience of working with local/national government departments and capacity building of systems and staff
Proven experience in programme development, project cycle management and monitoring and evaluation related to the sector
Proven skills and experience in writing donor reports (in English)
Knowledge and working experience in fragile states
Excellent interpersonal communication and presentation skills with experience of senior level negotiation and representation
Computer literate
Prepared to travel to the field as security allows to support technical staff in the field.

Desirable

Experience of working in Somalia
Commitment to and understanding of Save the Children’s aims, values and principles.

Working contacts

Internal:

Other thematic technical managers, area managers, partnership and quality programmes manager and team, monitoring and evaluation specialist, skills training and employment managers, security manager, project managers, advisers of SC members.

External:

Donors, Government departments, Consortium partners, research institutes, Somalia support secretariat, UN Agencies.

Code of Conduct

Because Save the Children's work is based on deeply held values and principles, it is essential that our commitment to children's rights and humanitarian principles is supported and demonstrated by all members of staff.

Save the Children's Code of Conduct sets out the standards which all staff members must adhere to.

How to Apply

All interested candidates please forward your CVs to: vacancies@scsom.org, the latest date of receiving applications will be on Monday 20th June 2011 at 15:00 pm