ABOUT FIRST CONSULT

First Consult is a leading economic development consulting firm implementing projects in Ethiopia. Founded in 2006, First Consult (FC) has grown to design and implement projects across the agriculture, manufacturing and service sectors. Our multidisciplinary teams combine a capacity to execute with a clarity of the local context. We have delivered at-scale real impact in terms of jobs & wealth creation, business formation & growth, and investment attraction & mobilization.

ABOUT THE BRIDGES PROGRAMME

BRIDGES is a Mastercard Foundation, Young Africa Works programme implemented by FC. It works to support the creation of close to 600,000 youth jobs (80% women) and 15,000 medium, small and micro enterprises (MSMEs), by training 300,000 unemployed youth as part of Industrial Park (IP) job-creation initiatives, and by creating market linkage between IPs and MSMEs.

The BRIDGES Programme is addressing two fundamental, immediate and complementary challenges to unlock the potential for job creation within IPs and their surrounding ecosystem by (1) Making the industrial workforce markets work, which through the Enterprise Partners Programme, First Consult/DAI have successfully piloted in a few industrial parks and is now being scaled-up. (2) Making the IP-MSME business linkage markets work to enhance domestic manufacturing value-addition (MVA) for every given dollar of export. This is done by substituting the heavily import-dependent procurement – itself a constraint on the IP factories - with local suppliers (MSMEs) in a number of ways.

MSMEs market: BRIDGES works with SMEs to enable them tap into major market opportunities around the 10 major IPs and large enterprises outside IPs. The work involves major information, coordination, capacity development and access to finance initiatives to be undertaken in partnership with key IP, large enterprise and MSME stakeholders including demand (IP), supply (MSMEs), linkage (information, transaction and payment platforms) and ecosystem.

The key departure from prior MSME development efforts, is to leverage the demand side to be more than just a passive or reactive customer at the end of the process and to facilitate the linkage at the beginning in a demand-driven way. BRIDGES’ facilitation will enable to bring the large enterprises, MSMEs and necessary public and private stakeholders together and de-risking the initial rounds of technical assistance and business linkage transactions. In order to ensure the marketability of the various types of business development support delivery as well as outreach, BRIDGES is proposing to create a win-win Public Private Partnership (PPP).

 POSITION SUMMARY

The Co-Lead –Workforce Development will primarily be responsible for analysing the industrial labour/workforce market and designing and implementing systemic interventions addressing underlying constraints which are hampering the productivity and competitiveness of the Ethiopian industrial workforce. S/he is responsible for engaging in strategic labor issues that bring bigger labor-area systemic changes in general and addressing IP specific strategic labor matters such as product and productivity enhancement, retention mechanisms, soft skills provision and engagement on policy changes.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Specific duties and responsibilities include but are not limited to the following responsibility areas:

• Design and monitor interventions primarily related to wage employment within and outside of Industrial Parks.
• Engage with Ethiopian Investment Commission, Ministry of Labour and Skills, Federal and Regional Job Creation Bureaus, One-Stop Service centers and other relevant stakeholders in designing interventions, and facilitating wage employment linkages by building capacity of both demand and supply sides.
• Refine and implement the pre-employment “Worker Engagement and Retention” (WEAR) training (i.e. updating standardized training materials and customizing them to the respective cultural context)
• Monitor developments in wage employment areas and engage in the development of wage employment without deviating from the programme objectives
• Design interventions that contribute to the national labor market policy regarding gender, pay, inclusion, persons with disabilities (PWD)
• Identify and design specific labor engagement areas that contribute to labor retention and productivity enhancements (e.g. standardization of IP services, worker’s welfare)
• Engage in interventions that bring policy and regulatory changes
• Prioritize focus areas and design specific intervention ideas on strategic engagements in close cooperation with the team
• Develop quarterly and annual work plans and progress reports, including resource planning
• Build and cultivate relationships with stakeholders and implementers to solve or mitigate constraints around wage employment areas
• Monitor the results of interventions in line with Mastercard Foundation standards. Develop project plans and work with the Monitoring & Evaluation team to develop appropriate monitoring plans for these interventions, assess results and draw the necessary conclusions from the evaluation such as scaling up or closing down interventions as necessary.

 JOB REQUIREMENTS 

• Education: Minimum of Master's degree; MBA, finance (or other related field) is an advantage.
• Experience:  Minimum 10 years of relevant work experience; preferably in private sector development
• An understanding of the IP market and dynamics in Ethiopia
• Strong command of English and Amharic 
• Competency in MS Office

How to Apply

To apply, please send your CV and an application letter to jobs@firstconsultet.com before the deadline on 11 April 2022. The subject line of the email should read ‘Co-Lead – Workforce Development’.