Project Manager (m/f/x) “Skills, Employment and Entrepreneurship”

Background

The project manager will be responsible for the steering and the management of 3 projects, put in place via a joint project unit, namely “Skilled Young Palestine (SYP)”, “Youth Economic Empowerment in Palestine (YEP)” and “Pathways to Employment (PEP)”. The specific objectives of the 3 projects are contributing to empowering youth in Palestine through skilling, employment, and entrepreneurship via the funding and coordination vehicle of the Skills Development Fund.

Project 1 : Skilled Young Palestine (SYP)

The SYP project is aiming to support Palestinian Youth in gaining economic autonomy and building their resilience. The project is ongoing (mid-term) and will end its implementation at the end of 2023. Focus of the project is on skilling (technical/vocational, 21^st century skills and entrepreneurial mindset), and to a lesser extent on employment.

Achievements: set-up and piloting of a financing mechanism for skills development in Palestine, set-up of 5 innovation hubs and capacity building of strategic and implementing partners, employment matching of youth in the ICT sector, training of youth in different vocational fields and 21^st century skills.

Project 2 : Youth Economic Empowerment in Palestine (YEP)

YEP is part of the “Palestinian Youth Empowerment Programme”, funded by the EU Neighbourhood Instrument. The specific objective of the Action is “Young women and men are better equipped to access inclusive and decent employment opportunities.”

This project started in the beginning of 2022 and is building on good practices and lessons learnt of SYP. Additional result areas and innovative elements in the field of employment and women entrepreneurship were added.

*Project 3 : Pathways to Employment (PEP)

PEP’s objective is to ensure that “more young women and men in Palestine are employed in decent work conditions or have their own income-generating business”. This project is currently in the inception phase and will start its implementation in May 2022. The project is building on SYP and deepening certain components of the YEP project. More focus on entrepreneurship and additional elements to be integrated related to climate change and environment (green skills, green jobs).

The 3 projects are implemented in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip and have a specific focus on inclusion. They form an overall small program in the above-mentioned thematic areas and have a shared HR set-up composed of local and international expertise and different support units (Communication, MEL, Finance & Contracting) in the different project implementation areas.

Job description

Main duties of the Project Manager:

· You are responsible for the good execution of the projects (content, planning, budget, quality) in order to reach sustainable development results ;

· You coordinate the realisation of the activities with a view of achieving the projects objectives;

· You support the persons indicated to lead the change process;

· You contribute to capacity development of partner organisations;

· You coordinate the learning process on how an intervention contributes to the development of the sector;

· You lead the teams placed under your hierarchical responsibility. As the project operates in three different contexts and economic eco-systems (West-Bank including East-Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip); a similar but differentiated approach is required; taking into account the opportunities and limitations of each context. This involves also managing staff members through a ‘distance relationship’(mainly Gaza);

· You ensure that relevant results information is available for monitoring and evaluation in order to allow monitoring of performance, decision-making, learning and reporting;

· You develop the project’s communication strategy and ensure its implementation.

You report to the Resident Representative of Enabel in Palestine.

Your profile

Note: international staff working for Enabel in Palestine must be of Belgian nationality in order to obtain a working permit as staff member of the Belgian Consulate-General.

Required qualifications and experience

· You hold a Master’s degree;**

· At least 5 years of relevant experience in steering international development projects;

· At least 5 years of relevant experience in at least two out of 3 thematic areas: vocational education and training (VET) and/or private sector involvement in VET and/or employment promotion and/or business development and entrepreneurship;

• Experience with contract management (public procurement, grants…) is an asset;
• Experience in working with a multi-or bilateral organisation (the European Union) is an asset.

Required skills and knowledge

· Good knowledge of aspects of international development (context, challenges, application, partners, functioning…);

· In-depth knowledge of project management methodologies ;

• Knowledge in the area of life skills, digital skills and/or entrepreneurial skills;

· Able to implement services and strategies for social inclusion, and more specifically on inclusion of women in employment and business development opportunities

• Knowledge in work-based learning (dual learning, apprentice-or internships) is an asset;

· Monitoring and evaluation competences ;

· Excellent interpersonal and diplomatic skills;

· Comfortable with leading groups dynamics and inter-culturalism;

· Pro-active results-oriented management ;

· You are fluent in spoken and written French and/or Dutch. Considering the working language of Palestine and the international environment in which you work, excellent knowledge of English is required. Notions of Arabic are an asset.

Applicants are also required to commit to the vision, mission and values of Enabel (https://www.enabel.be/content/enabel-vision-mission-values).

We offer you

· A fascinating job in a challenging international environment.

· A contract of 54 months. Your duty station is in Ramallah with regular travels inside the country, including the Gaza Strip. You will be based in Jerusalem, in line with the Enabel Palestine security guidelines

· A salary package that comprises the monthly gross salary, in accordance with our salary scales (Class 6), and Enabel expat benefits such as a remoteness, assignment and hardship allowance, (capped) coverage of housing expenses, a moving compensation, an installation compensation, (capped) coverage of school expenses for children accompanying, an insurance package for the whole family, including repatriation insurance, and an annual round-trip flight ticket for each family member.

· In case of expatriation without the (dependent) members of the family, up to six additional round-trip flight tickets to the country of origin or another destination (capped in accordance with Enabel rules).

The various amounts vary in function of relevant recognised experience for the function and family composition.

Following this recruitment procedure, a shortlist of successful applicants may be constituted which may be sourced in the next three years for similar job openings.

Every person who fulfils the conditions listed in our job advertisements may apply. Enabel is committed to equal opportunities and diversity in its workforce. We do not discriminate on the basis of gender, origin, age, religion, sexual orientation, disability status or any other factor other than competence.