Project Facilitation Officer (Training and Workforce development) -3 Required

VSO is the world’s leading international organisation working through volunteers to create a fair world for everyone. We focus on people who are marginalised or excluded, including those living in poverty, people with disabilities or illness, and those facing discrimination, violence, disasters, disease, and conflict.

VSO places these individuals at the centre of its work as primary actors and agents of change. We work with communities to identify their priorities, opportunities, and solutions, supporting locally led and sustainable change.

Our Approach

VSO’s Volunteering for Development (VfD) approach supports vulnerable and marginalised people to claim their rights and drive lasting change. It addresses the root causes of vulnerability and marginalisation through three core approaches: social inclusion and gender, social accountability, and resilience. These approaches underpin our work in inclusive education, health, resilient livelihoods and peace building.

About the Job

VSO is a lead implementer of the Internship Opportunities for Young Women program (iWork), financed by the Mastercard Foundation. The program will be implemented in Ethiopia across Amhara, Oromia, and Harari regional states, as well as the Addis Ababa and Dire Dawa city administrations. iWork aims to create internship opportunities for 24,000 financially disadvantaged young people, with a primary focus on young women. The program also promotes inclusion by reaching persons with disabilities, refugees, internally displaced people, and returnees. Through internships, iWork aims to help young women build the skills and experience they need to access dignified and fulfilling work, contributing to poverty reduction and an improved quality of life.

VSO Ethiopia is recruiting an experienced Project Facilitation officer: (Training and workforce Development) for iWork program.

Role Purpose:

Implement consortium-aligned training, skills-building and workforce development activities in the assigned cluster of i-Work program, placing young women and other disadvantaged youth at the centre. coordinates with local stakeholders to strengthen local capacity for gender-transformative, inclusive and demand-led training; facilitate work-readiness and technical skills development; and support work-based learning and mentoring that enable internship participants to transition into work opportunities.

Tasks Responsibilities

• Coordinate to conduct local workforce assessment, skills gaps, and institutional capacity of OSS, TVET institutions and Local Service Providers, and host enterprises in the assigned cluster.
• Coordinate the design and delivery of market-aligned skills development and internship readiness programmes that relevant to the local geographical context.
• Enable youth to shape youth-led development pathways, ensuring training, internship readiness, placement, work-based learning and career guidance reflect youth aspirations, remove barriers and support young women and local market opportunities.
• Provide local insights to the consortium for the quality design and delivery plan of competency-based curricula, training manuals, facilitation guides, and learning tools that integrate technical, business, digital, and life skills.
• Refine training curricula and delivery plan in partnership with local institutes to meet the local needs.
• Facilitate comprehensive soft skills to improve work-readiness, employability, entrepreneurship, and communication skills.
• Provide relevant technical skill trainings in partnership with local educational institutions, TVET institutions, enterprise and industry sector experts.
• Coordinate and deliver work-based learning, on-the-job training, coaching, and mentoring activities for participants placed with host enterprises.
• Coordinate and facilitate Training of Trainers (ToT) programmes for Local Service Providers (LSPs), TVET trainers, and government experts.
• Track registration, training delivery, monitor training quality, learner progress, internship readiness, work-based learning, mentoring and host enterprise engagement.
• Contribute training-related data, case studies, and lessons learned to programme reports and reflection processes.
• Provide regular updates to the Cluster Coordinator on training implementation status, challenges, and recommendations.
• Build practical partnerships with TVETs, LSPs, host enterprises, local government, OPDs, youth/women groups and community actors to expand inclusive access to training, mentoring, internships and transition-to-work pathways.
• Use local knowledge, community linkages and employer feedback to strengthen training relevance.
• Coordinate joint outreach, training activities, career fairs, job-matching events and employer engagement sessions that encourage participation by young women and other disadvantaged youth.
• Work with local stakeholders and host enterprise to support certification, access to government services and integration of workforce development activities into local development plans.
• Provide feedback on training effectiveness and suggest improvements based on ground realities.
• Support the documentation of lessons learned and best practices.
• Coordinate with other Project Facilitation Officers and consortium partners to share local learnings, harmonise tools and strengthen consistent, inclusive and gender-transformative training and skill building practices.

Work Location: Addis Ababa (1) Bahir Dar (1), and Kombolcha (1)

Required Qualification

Education

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent knowledge and skills in a relevant field such Education management, Development Studies, Business Administration, Human Resources management, Economics, or other social science related discipline.

Professional Experience:

• Significant relevant professional experience in Training Program Management:  designing, delivering, and evaluating training and learning solutions, including blended approaches (in-person and e-learning), knowledge and experience in training, workforce development, women and youth skills development, TVET or a related field, with understanding of the local context in the target areas.
• Practical experience designing, delivering and evaluating employability or workforce development training for diverse learners, including blended or digital learning with ability to support young women and other disadvantaged youth shape their own development pathways.
• Experience conducting training needs assessments, co-designing accessible learning resources, curriculum refinement, facilitation, learner follow-up, mentoring and participatory reflection.
• Ability to build effective relationships with local education institutes, TVETs, LSPs, government agencies, private sector, community, youth/women/OPD groups to align skills development with market needs.
• conducting detailed training needs assessments and developing curriculum and training materials.
• Workforce Development & Employability: Proven track record in managing programs that improve skills, employability, and labor market outcomes for youth . Experience coordinating technical skills development projects in partnership with local industry to improve workforce readiness is highly valuable .
• Good facilitation, communication, coordination, reporting, problem-solving, organisational and digital skills, with working English and local language skills.
• Practical understanding of gender transformation, inclusion, safeguarding, duty of care, participatory and youth-led approaches.
• Demonstrated VSO behavioral competencies at the level relevant to the role.
• Commitment to VSO’s vision, mission, values, code of conduct, people-first principles and Volunteering for Development approach.

Travel Requirement

Ability to travel frequently to project field locations, woredas and stakeholder sites within the assigned cluster, and occasionally to other programme locations as required.