IT Specialist – Tunisia JOBS Retour vers les opportunités

BACKGROUND 

Tunisia JOBS, financed by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), is delivering technical assistance to Tunisian SMEs to enable enterprise growth and employment. As part of this effort, JOBS’ workforce development (WFD) component is engaging the public and private sectors to reduce the gaps in skills and employment by, respectively, building youths’ readiness for the job market and filling employers’ job vacancies. These gaps have different implications in the short-, medium-, and long-terms, and they have mutually-reinforcing objectives. Sustainable impact requires reducing both gaps. 

As part of its Year 2 strategy, JOBS will reduce the gaps in a targeted, sector approach, complementing national-level and regional pilots in partnership with sectoral federations and leading employers. Activities will reach youth at three critical points in their career pathways: (1) before they enroll in an educational institution, either higher education or vocational training, (2) as they are building skills, and (3) as they are searching for their first jobs. Target sectors include ICT, electromechanics, textiles, and tourism in pilot regions of Tunis, Sfax, the Sahel, and the South. Pilot activities will be implemented in concert with JOBS’ enterprise engagement component to deliver strategic assistance that draws on a variety of resources (e.g. consultancies, training, job-matching events, regional career centers, etc) to reduce the gap in a particular region and sector. 

The Government of Tunisia (GOT) has engaged in a strategic reform plan for the higher education and vocational training systems with the aim to enhance employability of Tunisian youth. The unemployment rate is the highest among university graduates and averages 25% for men and more than 30% for women; unemployment among youth with at least nine months of vocational training is lower on average nationally, but rises as high as 40 percent in some underserved regions. 

Given the urgency of Tunisia’s unemployment crisis, JOBS will support both the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research (MESRS) and the Ministry of Vocational Training and Employment (MFPE) to implement digital solutions in JOBS’ pilot regions and, based on lessons learned, expand the reach and impact of these tools nationally to help decision-makers and 

stakeholders throughout the education system to better understand the size, scope, sector, and location of the unemployment problem, as well as the impact of specific WFD initiatives. Specific areas in which JOBS will offer (or continue to offer) digital solutions: 

• Job-Matching (higher education): In Year 1, JOBS conducted a roadshow to train directors of career centers in the higher education system on the use of www.4C.tn, a job-matching platform originally designed by the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research (MHESR). One goal of this roadshow was to collect feedback from directors of career centers on enhancements and upgrades to the 4C.tn platform to help each career center better facilitate matching of qualified youth to private sector employers. The platform already has features to report on results (e.g. how many students and employers are active in the system; what are the hours of greatest usage/traffic; how many vacancies are posted by employers; how many applications are submitted by youth, etc). In Year 2, JOBS will conduct a second roadshow to register more employers and youth in the 4C.tn system and add new features into the 4C.tn system based on recommendations made during the roadshows. 
• Job-Matching (vocational training): In Year 1, JOBS developed a strategy for creation and implementation of vocational training career centers (AREs). Based on lessons learned from the 4C.tn platform, in year 2 JOBS will create a similar platform that matches youth in the vocational training system with employers. This system anticipates inclusion of a toolkit and training modules available to vocational training centers in JOBS’ pilot regions and nationally. 
• Curricula Reform: In Year 1, JOBS supported the MHESR to facilitate a public-private collaboration process in curricula reform in Information, Communication and Technology (ICT), and Business Administration, two areas with strong hiring demand in the private sector. This collaboration was a first in Tunisian higher education, which both the MHE and private-sector representatives appreciated. Prior to JOBS’ efforts in Year 1, academicians – who did not have real-world experience to know which skills and practical exercises to integrate into curricula – led the process. The work covered 12 subject areas within the two curricula, involving 33 private employers and four private sector associations. This reform process will impacted 8,500 students in higher education institutions by the end of the 2019-2020 academic year. This reform initiative raised the bar and established a sustainable process for future curricula reviews, illustrating the value in this participatory process. It addressed root causes of the skills mismatch at a systemic level by aligning the skills of university graduates with private sector demands to enhance the overall employability of Tunisian youth. In Year 2, JOBS will digitize the process to make it more inclusive to employers nationwide and to accelerate the timeframe in which stakeholders will benefit from curricula that is responsive to employers’ hiring needs. 
• Data for Decision-Making: Tunisia’s labor-market data are provided from a variety of sources: the National Statistics Institute, the National Employment and Self-Employment Agency (ANETI), think tanks such as IACE, and others. The data are not consistent in terms of national/regional coverage, surveyed populations, survey methodology, timeframes, etc. As a result, it is difficult for decision-makers to prioritize initiatives to mitigate the unemployment crisis. Tunisia’s National Observatory of Employment and Qualifications (ONEQ) maintains a Labor Market Information System (LMIS) that should in theory provide data on unemployment, using data from these sources and others and presenting it in a consistent and reliable manner. In Year 2, JOBS will build a roadmap for enhancement of Tunisia’s LMIS to streamline unemployment data, coordinate various stakeholders, and provide a reliable set of data that allows decision-makers to understand where to direct resources.

As part of JOBS’ Year 2 WFD annual work plan, JOBS will support these digital initiatives to better track and define both results of WFD efforts, as well as priority areas for continuing WFD initiatives by JOBS, MHESR, MFPE, and private-sector stakeholders. 

OBJECTIVES 

JOBS is proposing a long-term Workforce Development (WFD) IT Specialist to support both higher education and vocational training team members to digitize solutions and integrate them into activities of the workforce development component. The WFD IT Specialist will support both MHESR and MFPE in the design and management of a digital activities in close collaboration with the project team. 

DETAILED RESPONSIBILITIES 

The detailed responsibilities are outlined below: 

• Add new features as defined in roadshows to www.4C.tn. 
• Design and build the job-matching platform for vocational training career centers, AREs, based on recommendations from private employers and lessons learned from 4C.tn. 
• Replicate the curricula-reform process initiated during Year 1 in an online portal. 
• In concert with a short-term technical consultant, contribute the digital functionality and limitations to JOBS’ creation of a roadmap for the LMIS. 
• Create potentially others, to be defined during the course of implementing the annual work plan. 
• Collect specifications from users of each system to inform the design of each system. 
• Develop and maintain a database and pipeline of youth trained on the Employability Readiness Pack through the workforce development component activities. 
• Customize and expand the use of the Najjahni SMS job-matching platform to other telecom operators of ProInvest for greater outreach to youth in delivery of job-matching events. 
• As directed by the component team leader, use Najjahni SMS job-matching platform to connect with hundreds of thousands of target population (youth, employers, CSOs) and link jobseekers to job opportunities. 
• Contribute content to routine reporting (e.g. weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, quarterly, annual, work plan, etc), as required by the component team leader. 
• Other duties, as assigned by supervisor. 

 Key Performance Indicators 

• Achievement of metrics defined in JOBS’ annual work plan activities assigned to the C2 vocational training team. 
• Completion of annual work plan activities related to implementation of IT platforms. 
• Evaluation criteria established with supervisor in the annual performance-review process in the areas of (i) performance against scope of work, (ii) passion, patience, perseverance, (iii) team work/values, (iv) technical leadership, and (v) supervision, administration, management. 

REPORTING: 

The WFD IT Specialist for Vocational Training reports to the team leader of JOBS’ Workforce Development component.