Junior Project Technical Officer (SKILLS) P2

This position will be located in the Skills Branch of the Employment Policy Department at the ILO Geneva. The Skills Branch provides high-quality, timely, and integrated research, technical and policy advisory services on skills development in three key thematic areas: national skills policies and systems; work-based learning, apprenticeships and recognition of prior learning; skills strategies for future labour markets; and skills for social inclusion.

The Branch’s work on social inclusion focuses on improving the labour market prospects and quality of work for those disadvantaged in the labour market. Concerted and focused efforts are needed to improve outreach, quality and relevance of education and training and improve links with the world of work. Given the heterogeneity of disadvantaged groups, such as women, youth, persons with disabilities, workers in rural areas or in the informal economy, migrants or refugees, education and training systems and programs have to be: 

• Designed to overcome the range of existing barriers 
• Respond flexibly to different needs and
• Address questions of status and challenge social perceptions.

The Junior Project Technical Officer will support the Branch’s technical work on skills for vulnerable groups, including migrant workers, forcibly displaced persons, people in the informal economy, and victims of forced labour, to ensure that skills are relevant and portable, and lead to decent jobs, decreasing the risk of abuse, and promoting access to education and training systems and the labour market. The Junior Project Technical Officer will contribute to comparative policy research, technical assistance to countries and capacity building of ILO constituents (Governments, employers and workers organisation) in developing and implementing  policies and programmes related to skills and lifelong learning for social inclusion. He/she will directly contribute to developing innovative approaches for inclusive skills development and to designing and implementing projects, managing knowledge and applying new technologies including digitisation to the above-mentioned work areas.

The Junior Project Technical Officer will assist in the overall activities of the work area on Skills for Social Inclusion. The incumbent will provide support on country and sub-regional analytical work, and will contribute to the delivery of the planned outputs, especially (but not exclusively) in the area of skills for migration and skills in the context of fragility.

Reporting lines:

Under the overall supervision of the Chief of SKILLS Branch, the incumbent reports directly to the Work Area Specialist on Skills for Social Inclusion. The incumbent will receive technical guidance from the specialists of the Skills and Employability Branch, and closely work with ILO field offices, other ILO teams including Jobs for Peace and Resilience, FUNDAMENTALS, MIGRANT and GED, and other development agencies, such as UNESCO, IOM, UNICEF, FAO and UNHCR.

1. Assist in providing technical support to the PROSPECTS partnership on skills-related areas,  in reviewing training materials,  supporting the application of a skills profiling tool, the guide on TVET for social cohesion, and the skills tracker tool, and assist in the drafting of ToRs, and capacity building of constituents and ILO partners with regard to inclusive formal and non-formal skills delivery, community-based training, recognition of prior learning, and upgrading of informal apprenticeships.
2. Assist in supporting skills partnerships on migration in West and Central Africa as a follow-up to tripartite sub regional workshops in 2019.
3. Assist in the application of tools on the prevention of modern slavery through skills development and the reintegration of victims, and in capacity building of constituents.
4. Contribute to the development and application of tools and knowledge products for the work area, and drafting components of them, including for a tool for conflict-sensitive TVET delivery, a competence profiling tool, for rural skills training, lifelong learning in the informal economy, and gender and diversity in skills policies and strategies.
5. Provide technical inputs to office documents related to skills and social inclusion (website materials, meetings and conference reports).
6. Contribute to the ILO Global Skills Partnership on migration by preparing minutes of meetings, assisting in coordination with external partners.
7. Contribute to collaborative interagency work (IOM, UNESCO, UNICEF, UNHCR, FAO and EU agencies) on skills for social inclusion, including inter-agency meetings, joint research projects, case studies, joint events and training delivery.
8. Assist in organising and preparing material for training courses and capacity building events in ITC-ILO in Turin and, on request, in ILO member States and regions on the development of inclusive skills development systems.
9. Assist in the organization of national and international workshops and other ILO events, including tripartite discussions and validations.
10. Support resource mobilisation efforts as required to secure additional funding from development partners for new projects.
11. Provide technical inputs as required to support the effective implementation of funded technical cooperation projects involving skills and social inclusion.
12. Perform other duties as may be required by the supervisor.

First level degree in Economic or Social Sciences, Human Resource Development, Development Studies, International Relations or a similar field.

Three years of relevant professional experience at the national level or international level in social research, education and training systems and work on disadvantaged groups.

Excellent knowledge of English and working knowledge of French.

• Ability to conduct research and use analytical tools and qualitative and quantitative techniques in manipulating data.
• Ability to draft clearly and concisely, both for the purposes of conceptualizing ideas and preparing draft reports and papers,
• Good interpersonal and communication skills.
• Good analytical skills.
• Ability to work on own initiative as well as a member of a team.
• Ability to carry out assignments in accordance with instructions and guidelines.
• Ability to conceptualise, plan, coordinate and conduct straightforward research work, discussion papers and reports.
• Good computer and programing skills.
• Ability to work in a multicultural environment and gender-sensitive behaviour and attitudes are also required.