Job Description

INNOVATION FOR YOUTH EMPLOYMENT- UPSKILLING AND CONNECTING YOUTH TO REMOTE WORK.

About Oxfam

Oxfam has been working in Somalia and Somaliland for over 40 years, predominantly with local and national partners, but also with some direct implementation. Oxfam has delivers both humanitarian and development programmes with a significant focus on advocacy and local/national civil society development. Thematic areas of programming include gender, water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH), food security, fisheries management, civic engagement, political participation and improving economic opportunities, particularly for women and youth.

About the Work in Progress Project.

The Work in Progress! (WIP!) project aims to create more employment for young men and women in Somaliland, promoting positive expectations about their future. This overarching objective will be achieved via three complementary pathways 1) increasing the supply of skilled youth by developing young people's skills and capacities for (self) employment; 2) developing market demand by growing the small and medium enterprise (SME) sector so that it will create more employment opportunities; and 3) cultivating an enabling environment for youth employment. Work in Progress! Alliance partners bring their unique expertise to the project, making it possible to implement the holistic approach towards youth employment.

The Innovation for Youth Employment.

The Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated trends around the "future of work". The sharing/gig economy is an on-demand economy that has indeed expanded fast, with many jobs provided by technology-focused companies for independent workers for short-term and long-term engagements in remote work. This brings an opportunity for talented young people living in the global south who previously struggled to find work in their home countries to get out of unemployment, informality; and brings promising aspects of decent employment and flexibility. They can now work remotely for giant enterprises. Nonetheless, the remote job requires specific skill sets. The most in-demand skill sets are digital skills, including digital marketing, data analytics, data science, web development, user experience, and e-commerce. Equally, the soft skills are also increasingly in-demand for remote work models has made particular skills even more valuable, such as communication, self-starting, collaboration, and time-management. To remain relevant in today’s fast-paced workplace, it has become critical to keep up with trends by developing a young skill set. 

Oxfam believes that locally led innovations should be harnessed and supported to solve various challenges affecting Somali communities. With this innovation for youth employment, Oxfam is keen to explore and pilot innovative local tech training institutes or tech hubs that can upskill a pre-identified group of Work in Progress beneficiaries, particularly the digital skills programme to equip with in-demand digital skills to become desirable candidates for remote work and connect them with companies hiring remote workers.

Are you a forward-thinking tech training center or tech hub capable of upskilling and connecting young people to remote work? If so, this is the opportunity for you. Apply to the innovation for youth employment opportunity. The winner will be eligible for funding for youth upskilling training and remote work placement. Oxfam will also use the lessons learned from this experimental project for its future programming as well as will share with its youth development partners. 

Deliverables

• Upskill 15 youth previously trained in digital skills (coding, graphic designs, and motion graphics) under work in progress project.

• Connect all in15 to remote jobs either in a short-term and long-term engagements.

• Support the youth in navigating various remote employment agencies and setting up payment accounts.

• Produce a comprehensive report highlighting programme successes, challenges, innovation, learning, and future recommendations.

• Write a success story about 2-3 trainees who were replaced in remote jobs and earned money.

Location

• Hargeisa, Somaliland.

Selection process

This Innovation for youth employment is for promising concepts from tech training institutes or hubs registered in Somaliland. Applicants will apply by submitting proposals elaborating plans, concepts, and innovative approaches for the project and proposing a reasonable budget. A panel of judges will look at all the applications and give each one a score. The best applicants will then be asked to present their creative ideas. The panel will then select one winner for the award. 

Eligibility criteria

• A professional cutting-edge technology training provider with a strong network of global remote recruitment agencies or online talent sourcing platforms that are able to place young people in remote jobs.

• The training provider must be registered in Somaliland.

• The upskilling training and remote work placement should be implemented between October 2022 and December 2022.

• Only applications around innovative approaches and solutions to upskilling and placing youth in remote work will be considered.

Skills and Qualifications

Assessment criteria

1. Creative and innovative Approach (25%): The project that clearly demonstrates a new or innovative approach to implementing youth upskilling, training content and remote work placement. The approach does not have to be fully new, but it should be innovative enough to connect youth to remote work. This may include partnerships with recruitment agencies that enable remote work or freelance platforms.

2. Viability of proposal (25%): The proposed project is described clearly and is relevant to addressing the identified problem or the need. It should be viable and feasible to implement the project in a short time frame. The budget should be realistic considering the proposed activities and timeframe. The applicant’s own contribution (time commitment, financial or material) will be considered a plus.

3. Strength of Institution/firm (25%): The organization, firm, or the team has the qualifications, experience, network, materials, space, and equipment to implement the project successfully. Motivation and ideas are clearly communicated. The team has unquestionable integrity. Having women on the team is considered a plus.

4. Potential for sustainability (25%): The ability to continue the innovation/approach is crucial beyond the Oxfam support to helping other young remote jobseekers. The innovative proposal should, therefore, be potentially replicable or scalable, either through commercialization or by seeking investment or other funding support. The concept should therefore demonstrate a clear business model with a realistic growth strategy.  

Non-eligible costs

• Purchasing equipment or buildings/facilities.

• Bank charges, cost of guarantees and similar charges.

• Assets like land, vehicles, or computers

• Value and registration costs of intellectual property rights.

Planning and scheduling

• The deadline for applications is 19th  October 2022.

• Applicants will be invited to present their concept and approach to reach the expected deliverables after the judges do the shortlisting.

• The winner will be notified shortly thereafter, following which grant contracts will be processed.

• The innovation projects will be implemented from October 2022 – Dec 2022.

How to apply

We are accepting applications from hubs, local organizations, or training institutes with innovative ideas/concepts for upskilling youth and placing them in remote work. Please submit your concept note detailing- your understanding of the call for proposal, methodology and approaches, resumes of key technical trainers, and budget to the procurement email on:  SOM-Consultancies@oxfam.org  and indicate in Innovation for Youth Employment in the subject line of the e-mail. The deadline for receiving applications is 19th October 2022.