Youth & Adolescents Field Associate

UNOPS is an operational arm of the United Nations, supporting the successful implementation of its partners’ peacebuilding, humanitarian and development projects around the world. Our mission is to help people build better lives and countries achieve sustainable development.

UNOPS areas of expertise cover infrastructure, procurement, project management, financial management and human resources.

Working with us

UNOPS offers short- and long-term work opportunities in diverse and challenging environments across the globe. We are looking for creative, results-focused professionals with skills in a range of disciplines.

Diversity

With over 4,000 UNOPS personnel and approximately 7,000 personnel recruited on behalf of UNOPS partners spread across 80 countries, our workforce represents a wide range of nationalities and cultures. We promote a balanced, diverse workforce — a strength that helps us better understand and address our partners’ needs, and continually strive to improve our gender balance through initiatives and policies that encourage recruitment of qualified female candidates.

Work life harmonization

UNOPS values its people and recognizes the importance of balancing professional and personal demands.

In Jordan, there are a total of 126,009 Syrian refugees in refugee camps (Azraq and Za’atari refugee camp)—this makes up approximately 20% of total refugees in Jordan[1].  Three quarters of Syrian refugees in camps are below the age of 35.  In Jordan, the transition to safe and decent work is often slow, with youth having limited access to the resources required for self-employment and very little room for social and civic engagement.  More than 39 per cent of youth in Jordan aged 15-30 years are neither employed nor in education or training. The situation is even worse for Syrian refugees, with an estimated 84 per cent not engaged at all in their community, and thus at a risk of harmful, exploitative labor, or negative coping mechanisms.

Youth in Jordan searching for employment are often seen as ill-prepared for the workforce. This mismatch between the skills possessed by young graduates and the needs of the labor market affects 52.4 per cent of young workers aged 15-29. Consensus amongst employers is that the applicants’ communication and problem-solving skills remain underdeveloped, and this is often blamed on an education system built on memorization.

To support youth in their successful transition to adulthood and employment, UNICEF has been focusing on market-oriented skill building and creation of employment and civic engagement opportunities.  This includes providing life skills and social innovation trainings under the skills building program at Makani centers, technical and vocational training, and social entrepreneurship training and support.

The social innovation and entrepreneurship program is implemented in the Social Innovation Incubator, soon to be expanded into Youth Centers.  There are two incubators in Azraq camp and one Za’atari camp.  The social innovation incubators enroll young people with potential social enterprises and Syrian refugee volunteers provide training in social entrepreneurship using the UPSHIFT Social Innovation Phase II curriculum and IDEO Human-Centered Design curriculum.  In addition to the training, the program gives access to a basic wood and metal shop for prototyping, and meeting area for the young people to discuss their projects, meet with potential customers, etc.

Under the supervision of the Youth & Adolescents Program Officer (Social Innovation & Entrepreneurship-camps), the staff will supervise the activities of the social innovation incubators and the establishment of the Youth Center.  Support is expected in establishing the Youth Center programs as well.  This includes management of staff, logistics and technical support with suprevision/development of youth programs in camps.

Staff member will supervise the daily activities of the centers ensuring that activities take place according to program implementation plans.  Staff member will also support with the expansion of the incubator into Youth centers.  The supervisor will be supported by the site manager and facilitators to follow up on administrative and logistical activities.  The staff member is also expected to technically evaluate the quality of programs implemented and report on program overall progress.

The staff member is expected to assist with the following:

-          Bachelor’s Degree (4 year university Degree) business management, entrepreneurship, innovation, or related fields program

-          1 year of professional experience in youth empowering and innovation programming

-          Graduated from a four year university degree in business management, entrepreneurship, innovation, or related fields program.

-          Background and experience in economic engagement, innovation, human-centered design, and entrepreneurship-related projects is desired.

-          Experience working in relevant context of youth, refugees and economic engagement.

-          Have no other relatives in the line of authority which the inter will report to.

-          Have no immediate relatives (e.g. father, mother, brother, sister) working in UNICEF Jordan Country Office.

-          Have excellent academic performance as demonstrated by recent university or institution records.

-          Fluency in both Arabic and English is required.

Contract type: ICA

• Please note that the closing date is midnight Copenhagen time
• Applications received after the closing date will not be considered.
• Only those candidates that are short-listed for interviews will be notified.
• Qualified female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.
• UNOPS seeks to reasonably accommodate candidates with special needs, upon request.
• Work life harmonization - UNOPS values its people and recognizes the importance of balancing professional and personal demands. We have a progressive policy on work-life harmonization and offer several flexible working options. This policy applies to UNOPS personnel on all contract types
• UNOPS seeks to reasonably accommodate candidates with special needs, upon request.
• For staff positions only, UNOPS reserves the right to appoint a candidate at a lower level than the advertised level of the post
• The incumbent is responsible to abide by security policies, administrative instructions, plans and procedures of the UN Security Management System and that of UNOPS.  

It is the policy of UNOPS to conduct background checks on all potential recruits/interns. Recruitment/internship in UNOPS is contingent on the results of such checks.