Project Officer- Business Technical and Vocational Education (BTVET) /Tertiary – BRIDGE PROJECT – Uganda

Position Title: Project Officer- Business Technical and Vocational Education (BTVET) /Tertiary – BRIDGE PROJECT

Number of positions: 02

Duty Station: Kamwenge, Moyo

Contract Terms: 2 years renewable

Reporting to: Senior Project Officer- Business Technical and Vocational Education (BTVET) /Tertiary

Background: War Child Canada is an internationally recognized charity organization registered in Toronto, Canada, dedicated to helping children and their communities overcome the devastating effects of war. Its vision is “Accelerating Peace By Disrupting The Cycle Of Violence” and its mission is “Driving Generational Change For The Hardest Hit By Investing In The Power Of Local Communities”

Since being founded in 1999, War Child Canada has worked in 20 countries across the world and we are currently operational in Afghanistan, Yemen, Sudan, South Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and Uganda.

During the past five years, War Child Canada reached over 2,500,000 conflict-afflicted children and adults, 985,000 people benefitted from War Child’s educational initiatives, 480,000 people were helped to climb out of poverty and 1,075,000 people learned more about their rights and had better access to justice systems

War Child Canada in Uganda: Since 2014, War Child Canada has worked in 10 districts (mainly Refugee hosting) implementing integrated education, access to justice (incudes peacebuilding), opportunities/livelihoods, and programs. Our current districts of operation include; in Adjumani, Obongi, Yumbe, Arua, Koboko, Isingiro, Lamwo, Kikuube, Koboko and Kamwenge districts.

Context: The BRIDGE PROJECT: War Child Canada in partnership with Mastercard Foundation, Community Empowerment for Rural Development – CEFORD, Education Local Expertise Uganda (ELECU) and eight Refugee Led Community based organizations, will be implementing the BRIDGE: From Secondary Education and Skills Development to Job Opportunities for Refugee and Host Community Youth in Uganda’ Project.

The BRIDGE project that will be implemented from 2022 to 2026 is designed to further the Mastercard Foundation’ Young Africa Works Strategy (2018 to 2030)[1] and address the youth unemployment challenge focusing on refugee and host communities in Uganda’s refugee settlements in Adjumani, Obongi, Isingiro, Kamwenge, Kikuube, Yumbe, Arua and Koboko districts.

War Child Canada and project implementing partners will employ a gender sensitive and inclusive approach to programming, empower young people and recognize their potential as agents of change to ensure effective implementation and sustainability of the interventions. This will be achieved through two outcomes.

• Increased access to market relevant secondary and tertiary education and skills for refugee and host community youth
• Improved capacity of education institutions and teachers to offer quality and relevant education and skills for refugee and host community youth

The program will help to increase demand for education through a strong community engagement and strengthen education supply by strengthening the capacity of Alternative Education Program (AEP) host schools and BTVETs on gender and age sensitivity education and enroll 20,400 Lower Secondary AEP learners (14,280 female) and 2,168 (,518 female) Advanced level learners into 34 lower secondary AEP centers, 2,003 learners (1,402 female) in 15 Business, Technical, Vocational Education and Training (BTVET) schools and 136 learners in different universities across the country.

The proposed program aims to improve the quality and relevance of education by placing a strong focus on teacher capacity and formal, non-formal and alternative education and learning opportunities.

The program will further support young people in their transition to dignified work and throughout the life of the project, to thrive in their chosen form of employment or livelihood. Activities to support their success will include conducting market analysis annually to tailor interventions to the business context at the refugee settlement, implementing an adopted UPSHIFT – https://www.unicef.org/innovation/upshift business incubation “boot camps”, strengthening youth business support centres and BTVET institutions through training and infrastructure improvements, providing financial support to young people to access training programs and set up businesses and pairing young people with mentors from the business community.

Finally, the program approach promotes continuous learning and development to ensure project sustainability.

[1] For more information Mastercard Foundations Young Africa Works Strategy, please refer to this link – https://mastercardfdn.org/research/young-africa-works/

Position Summary: This position will provide a full range of project management support to the Senior Project Officer- BTVET/ TERTIARY to ensure improved quality of and access to BTVET and skills development services while providing technical and management support for empirical and policy-oriented analyses.

Specific Responsibilities:

• Support the establishment and strengthening of WCC- BRIDGE project implementation, monitoring, documentation and profiling innovations, lessons learned, and best practices for replication.
• Support the Senior Project Officer- BTVET/ TERTIARY in developing and implementing weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual project work plans, project activities and budgets in line with the approved WCC’s BRIDGE project proposal, work plans and budgets.
• Participate in regular coordination meetings with all the actors in the sub counties and parish levels.
• Assist with project risk management in the implementation of the project to minimize their occurrence and possible effects on the project in line with WCC- BRIDGE Project Risk Management plan and risk mitigation.
• Ensure quality BTVET clubs activities including attendance, club decoration, regular sessions, and update of club records.
• Monitor activities implementation and budget utilization of the WCC’s BRIDGE project and provide field levels accountabilities.
• Support the establishment and strengthening of WCC- BRIDGE project implementation, monitoring, documentation and profiling innovations, lessons learned, and best practices for replication.

Requirements:

• Either Bachelor of Vocational Studies in Technological Studies with Education, Bachelor of Vocational Studies with Education or Bachelor of Business Studies with Education, Social Sciences, Development Studies or related area.
• A minimum of 3 – 4 years relevant experience in the education programming in Emergency (EiE) activities preferably in technical and vocational education and training, teacher professional development, and higher education.
• A clear understanding of the government of the republic of Uganda’s Business, Technical, and Vocational Education (BTVET) and other vocational skills trainings is a must