Senior Technical Advisor, Workforce Development Program (Mexico)

BACKGROUND
The International Youth Foundation (IYF) invests in the extraordinary potential of young people. Founded in 1990, IYF builds and maintains a worldwide community of businesses, governments, and civil society organizations committed to empowering youth to be healthy, productive, and engaged citizens. IYF programs are catalysts for change that help young people obtain a quality education, gain employability skills, make healthy choices, and improve their communities. To learn more visit www.iyfnet.org [1].

This position will support IYF’s work under the expected United States Agency for International Development (USAID)/Mexico Cooperative Agreement for an activity focusing on Mexico’s northern border region entitled Workforce Development (WFD) for Youth in Mexico: Strengthening Education-to-Employment Systems. The overall goal of the program is to support Mexican initiatives at a systemic level to increase labor market skills acquisition among youth, adapt upper- and post-secondary education and training programs to labor market needs, and increase portability of skills across the education, training and labor market systems.

The program will support systemic changes that facilitate job search and skills matching for youth entering the workforce and strengthen competency-based certification. In addition, the program will seek to support and assist Mexican governmental, non-governmental, private sector and academic institutions to work together to adopt, implement, and account for more effective policies that address critical workforce skills gap-related issues, creating necessary linkages for the education to employment continuum to function more effectively. More specifically, this activity will directly address the deficit of workforce-ready skills in youth, while also supporting the participation of education institutions, Government of Mexico at the national and subnational levels, as well as the private sector and local NGOs in building an education to employment system to support youth employment, skills building in critical areas identified by employers and recognized competency-based certifications processes.  This program will support targeted organizations that support youth transition from formal (i.e. class-room based) and informal (i.e. non class-room based) education or training opportunities to the workforce and will work at a strategic level with the private sector and post-secondary learning institutions to identify those skills that are most in demand by the workforce and then adjust curricula to better meet these needs.

The program will take place in the northern border area of Mexico, which is defined for these purposes to be – at a minimum – the Mexican states of Baja California, Chihuahua and Nuevo Leon, with a preference for an approach that reaches or has an impact on all six Mexican states which border the United States.  USAID anticipates making an award no later than September 30, 2013 with a performance period of 36 months.

JOB SUMMARY
The Senior Technical Advisor will provide oversight and technical input for an anticipated USAID-funded program that will focus on providing relevant labor market skills acquisition, adapting upper- and post-secondary education and training programs to labor market needs and increasing portability of skills across the education, training and labor market systems in Mexico. This includes activity design and implementation; identification of skills development needs and priorities; development of training plans, curriculum and training programs; delivery of training to subcontractors and beneficiaries; and identification of additional technical specialists as needed.  The Senior Technical Advisor will be based in Mexico and be responsible for technical program implementation and monitoring on a full-time basis. 

Although the activity may ultimately (especially in later stages) leverage changes at the national level, given resource limitations, the activity is expected to specifically focus on addressing systemic changes and establishing linkages among organizations that can have a catalytic effect on workforce development along Mexico’s northern border, at a minimum. The northern border area is defined for these purposes to be – at a minimum – the Mexican states of Baja California, Chihuahua and Nuevo Leon, with a preference for an approach that reaches or has an impact on all six Mexican states which border the United States.

The Senior Technical Advisor will be a qualified local candidate based in Mexico and be responsible for managing program technical activities on a full-time basis. S/he will work closely with the Mexico Youth Work program. S/he will work closely with the program staff.  The Senior Technical Advisor will report to the project COP.  Hiring for this position will be contingent upon IYF securing funding from USAID for this activity and USAID’s approval of the candidate for this position.  To be eligible for this position, applicants must have the legal authority to work and reside in Mexico; this position is a local hire position and Mexican nationals are encouraged to apply.

JOB RESPONSIBILITIES/SPECIFIC DUTIES

-Support the COP in providing technical and program management guidance to the program’s field implementation team in order to achieve quality targeted results, in the following areas in particular:

• Develop the program’s strategic vision, in collaboration with USAID, IYF/Baltimore staff, and key Mexican stakeholders, including local NGOs and young people.
• Link the private sector needs at a systemic and strategic level to program activities.
• Ensure private sector and governmental commitment to participate in the programming and support ultimate job placement.
• Focus will be on increasing the relevance and quality of post-secondary, vocational and university curricula.

-Serve as a technical resource to component leads, providing guidance and follow up support on work plan implementation, quality assurance activities, and timelines.

-Support the COP to integrate lessons learned and monitoring and evaluation analysis into the capacity building efforts and implementation activities at the community level; support the documentation and articulation of achievements related to community youth hubs model.

-Provide technical advice to ensure smooth integration of service provider activities with community partner and IYF-led activities.

-Provide regular updates to the COP providing periodic reporting of the main implementation progress and challenges.

-Participate in meetings with USAID and other external and strategic stakeholders as needed.

SUPERVISOR
Reports directly to IYF’s Project COP in Mexico.

REQUIRED SKILLS/QUALIFICATIONS

• A Master’s degree required in education, education policy, economics, public policy or a relevant field.  Demonstrated ability to design and deliver effective programming in one or more of the mentioned areas of workforce development.
• At least 8 years of experience in management consultancy and project management, including international development, ideally in education and workforce development programs.
• Knowledge of Mexican education policies as relate to technical education at upper secondary and post secondary levels.
• Experience working at the policy or program level with competency based education systems, engaging productive sector in workforce development strategies aimed at youth in upper/post secondary education, etc.
• Experience working on Mexican border highly desirable
• Experience working on USAID-funded programs in Mexico and Latin America is preferred.
• Ability to exercise sound judgment and diplomacy in a multi-stakeholder environment. 
• Oral and written fluency in English and Spanish.
• Strong interpersonal and analytical skills.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills.
• Strong organizational skills and demonstrated ability to find viable solutions to complicated problems in a flexible, time sensitive and creative manner.
• Must be a self starter who takes initiative and is able to work with minimal supervision.
• Strong experience in managing activities across teams with diverse backgrounds.
• Strong team player, with demonstrated ability to positively motivate team members to success. 
• Strong computer skills in MS Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

LOCATION
Mexican states of Baja California, Chihuahua or Nuevo Leon with travel to other areas, as needed.

TO APPLY
Please submit the following documents via email to jobs@iyfnet.org [2] with "Mexico - Senior Technical Advisor-Your Name" in the subject line:

1. Completed IYF Field Office Application for Employment [3]
2. Cover Letter 
3. Resume

APPLICATION DEADLINE:  April 19, 2013

The International Youth Foundation is an Equal Opportunity Employer.