Background

UN Women, grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, works for the elimination of discrimination against women and girls; the empowerment of women; and the achievement of equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security.

UN Women’s Country Office, based in New Delhi, India, works to accelerate the advancement of gender equality and the empowerment of women through the strengthening of strategic partnerships, technical and policy advisory services and advocacy with governmental, inter-governmental and civil society partners. In addition, UN Women CO is charged with leading and coordinating the UN system’s work on gender equality, including through ensuring accountability for results.

Aligned with the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, UN Women is currently implementing a programme called Women Empowerment in STEM (WeSTEM) to motivate and support young women to pursue education and careers in STEM. The programme is aimed at empowerment of the most marginalized women and girls from the tribal areas of Madhya Pradesh, already enrolled in STEM courses in higher/technical/vocational education.

The programme is being implemented with Higher Education Institutes (HEI), Vocational Education Institutes and Technical Education Institutes in three districts of Madhya Pradesh to upskill young women and enable them to participate in the economy gainfully, or make informed choices to take up higher education in STEM.

The programme undertakes a holistic approach to empowerment offering pathways and support to access higher education, internships, apprenticeships, and employment opportunities for women. The programme offers a comprehensive solution by adopting a holistic approach, leveraging partnerships at all levels, using innovative pedagogies and finance to achieve its objective.

In this context, the Consultant – Placement Coordinator will work under the guidance and direct supervision of the Programme Analyst and overall supervision of Country Programme Manager (WEE), to support in the management of programme activities and coordinate with relevant team members, including the operations team, implementing partner organisations and government officials, to ensure successful implementation of Programmes.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Conduct an aspirational mapping of the students through online and offline interviews and surveys;
• Undertake a skill needs assessment of the students;
• Mapping of jobs in STEM in the various districs of MP and connecting the candidates accordingly;
• Create and maintain a list of young women participating in placement activities and share with programme team;
• Meeting with young women to provide them information about the company or organization,s culture and expectation of  employees ;
• Facilitate linkages between the beneficiary girls/women and companies to find the relevant jobs in STEM;
• To obtain employment and experiential opportunities in STEM sector;
• To counsel, prepare and enhance hiring potential of beneficiaries;
• To assist in the internships and placement;
• To assist in conducting mock interviews;
• To plan and organize job fairs;
• To ensure that the pre-placement offers are instituted and systemized by coordinating with the various companies/industries hiring for STEM based jobs;
• To improve the quality of placements in terms of job opportunities, quality of companies that visit the placement centers in the districts  and increase the average salaries year on year;
• Responsible for organizing summer and winter internships  in companies that are most likely to offer conversion into final placements, as much as possible;
• To collect the job announcement/description – requirements, job details, and specifications from the representatives of each interested organization and share the same with the beneficiaries  – in a timely manner;
• To correspond to prospective companies and invite for placement interview/online interview wherever applicable;
• Support placement logistics, such as traveling, accommodation, etc for the candidates wherever needed a part of the programme;
• Follow up hiring steps to receive placement confirmation, joining date, offer letter, etc;
• Track all placements either through software or systemized methods;
• Provide post placement assistance to students;
• Share the database of eligible aspirants to the prospective companies/organisations based on the stipulated criteria;
• Arrange for interview facilities at the relevant venue;
• Share industry feedback, trends, and expectations in STEM with beneficiaries.

Deliverables:

• Develop a list of network of employers and shared with Govt placement coordinators and staff that will assist all program participants in securing employment and/or internships – March 2024;
• Customised and coordinated job fairs matching employers’ needs with participants’ abilities, skills, and interest – 1 Each Month;
• Mobiilised private companies for participation in job fairs – 1 Each Month;
• Mobilised private companies for offering job/apprenticeship/ internships etc. – 1 Each Month;
• Facilitated exposure visits for program participants – 1 Each Quarter;
• Developed an information bank regarding employability development programs, vocational training programs, that will enhace the employability of program participants – April 2024
• Conducted capacity building trainings of placement coordinators of  Govt ITIs  and Polytechnics, contributing towards strengthening their capacities – 1 Each Month

Competencies

Core Values

• Respect for Diversity
• Integrity
• Professionalism

Core Competencies

• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues
• Accountability
• Creative Problem Solving
• Effective Communication
• Inclusive Collaboration
• Stakeholder Engagement
• Leading by Example

Functional Competencies

• Good programme management, monitoring and evaluation skills;
• Ability to create, edit and present information in clear and presentable formats;
• Ability to manage data, documents, correspondence and reports information and workflow;
• Good knowledge of technical area;
• Ability to identify and analyze trends and opportunities.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Minimum undergraduate degree in a relevant field such as Human Resources/ Social Sciences/Management studies or related discipline.
• 5 years of exprience would be considered in lieu of Master’s degree.

Experience:

• At least 3 years of experience in human resources, placement coordination, recruitment sector.
• Experience of working in the UN System is an asset.
• Experience in the thematic area of women’s economic empowerment will be an advantage.
• Knowledge of  STEM subjects  will be desirable.

Language and Other Requirements:

• Fluency in Hindi and English is required;
• Knowledge of the other UN official working language is an asset;
• Excellent interpersonal skills and communication skills;
• Ability to handle requirements of Engineering, STEM based jobs;
• Willingness to travel as per professional requirements.

Interested applicants should apply to this announcement through UNDP jobs site: jobs.undp.org.

Application:

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications in one single PDF document:

• All applications must include (as an attachment) the completed UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded http://asiapacific.unwomen.org/en/about-us/jobs.
• Kindly note that the system will only allow one attachment, please combine all your documents into one (1) single PDF document. Applications without the completed UN Women P-11 form will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment.
• Applications received after the close date will not be accepted.
• Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.

Evaluation and Selection Criteria:

Criteria for shortlisting of CVs will be based on the following assessment:

• Required Degree and Qualification (5 points).
• Minimum Experience relevant to the assignment (10 points)
• Working knowledge and experience of working with Community/Programme Partner/ State Government  (5 points).

The evaluation process for selection of the candidate will be based on the following assessment:

• Interview
• Writing Samples

Please Note:

• Consultants are required to submit doctor’s certificate to state fitness to work and travel for the assignment.
• Due to large number of potential applicants, only competitively selected candidates will be contacted for remaining steps of the service procurement process.
• The consultant is expected to use their own computer equipment. The office will not provide any computer equipment for this assignment.
• This is a full-time assignment. The consultant is expected to disclose any outside activity and shall not be permitted to take up any outside work during the course of this assignment.

Note:

In July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly created UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality, and the Empowerment of Women. The creation of UN Women came about as part of the UN reform agenda, bringing together resources and mandates for greater impact. It merges and builds on the important work of four previously distinct parts of the UN system (DAW, OSAGI, INSTRAW and UNIFEM), which focused exclusively on gender equality and women’s empowerment.