Website Care India

POSITION/DESIGNATION

Project Officer-Skill Development and Linkages

GRADE/LEVEL

PROJECT/UNIT

Empowering waste pickers in Bengaluru to pursue a sustainable and gainful alternative livelihood

PROJECT DURATION

Up to 31st December 2023

REPORTS TO

Program Manager

LOCATION

Bengaluru

TRAVEL

Regular field travel within the project location, if required other locations also

ABOUT US

CARE is a not-for-profit organisation working in India for over 70 years, focusing on alleviating poverty and social injustice. We do this through well-planned and comprehensive projects in health, education, livelihoods and disaster preparedness and response. Our overall goal is the empowerment of women and girls from poor and marginalised communities leading to improvement in their lives and livelihoods.

During FY 2020-21, CARE India directly reached out to 52.7 million people through 53 programmes across 18 states, covering more than 130+ districts. We are part of the CARE International Confederation, working in 100 countries for a world where people live with dignity and security.

CARE India seeks a world of hope, tolerance, and social justice, where poverty has been overcome and people live in dignity and security.

Our goal is to ensure that women and girls from the most marginalized communities are empowered, live in dignity and their households have secure and resilient lives. CARE India aims to accomplish this goal by working with 50 million people to help them have quality health, education, livelihoods and overcome the effects of disasters.

Our employees are committed to CARE’s values, Code of Conduct, and safeguarding commitments towards a safe workplace for all, including the principle of ‘do no harm’. They are also responsible to uphold and strengthen our safeguarding commitments in their role. To know more about our safeguarding policies please visit our website link given below.

PROJECT DETAILS

The project is for improving the livelihood of informal waste pickers through soft skill trainings, collectivization, linkage and by creating enabling ecosystem environment. Despite the importance of their role, waste pickers are stigmatized and widely discriminated amongst the marginalised population. The waste pickers suffer from multiple forms of livelihood challenges such as lack of professional pride, occupational hazards, low economic status, unstable income, work related harassment and lack of recognition, inaccessibility of social security benefits, and social stigma etc. The marginalisation of waste picker’s is worsened by their poor social status, ethnicity, lack of education, poverty, disabilities, family pressures, lack of social mobility, and lack of skills.

The project is a Collective Impact (CI) initiative to bring improvements in the quality of life of waste pickers in Bengaluru, with a gendered and systemic approach. It has identified seven key intervention areas which addresses issues prioritized by waste pickers. One of the intervention areas is to develop and devise ‘alternate livelihood opportunities’ from waste picking to provide interested waste pickers a secured and sustainable alternative livelihood option contributing to their improved quality of life.

With this background, CARE India Solutions for Sustainable Development (CISSD) is implementing a project with a goal that waste pickers, especially women, are empowered to pursue dignified and gainful alternative livelihoods within an enabling environment.

JOB SUMMARY

PO-SD & linkages will lead the soft and vocational skill development, alternative employment initiative and entrepreneurship linkages of the project.

PO-SD & linkages will support the achievement of the project goal of “Waste pickers, especially women, are empowered to pursue dignified and gainful alternative livelihoods within an enabling environment”. In order to achieve this, the PO-SD & linkages will support progress on four inter-connected areas, which includes (i) skills and capacities of the target groups, (ii) promoting collective action among the waste pickers, (iii) facilitating access to relevant services, schemes, resources and opportunities and finally (iv) creating an enabling environment for the waste pickers through engaging with and sensitising relevant ecosystem actors and institutions.

Working closely with other colleagues and partners, the PO-SD & linkages will be responsible for developing and implementing a Skill Development and alternative livelihoods strategy for the project. S/He will ensure that Gender strategy is included in all aspects of programming in coordination with colleagues.

ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Research and Studies

Carry out specific studies in line with existing and potential skill enhancement opportunities and market linkages
Support Gender studies and assessments in coordination with colleagues
Map key stakeholders and develop engagement strategy.
Engage more with relevant government departments and create entrepreneurship linkage for women entrepreneurs

Skill Development

Identify the specific requirements of the community and design training programmes in soft and vocational skills
Develop advanced training curriculum as per the requirement of the project.
Select community resource persons to serve as the community mobiliser and interlocutor.
Recruit well trained trainers/staff from the local areas to suit the required competencies.
Liaison with local skill development partners for smooth uptake and completion of skill training programs.

SEED Centers:

Ensure that SEED centers provide a holistic approach to waste pickers’ empowerment by delivering life skills, entrepreneurial and employability skills
Ensure that SEED centers facilitate access to employment opportunities, job placement, tracking and post-placement supports and sustainable livelihood options.

Capacity Building

Design advanced soft skill training possibilities for women entrepreneurs
Identify and enable the vocational skill needs of wone who are illiterate
Develop appropriate tools and methods to assess the capacity building needs of waste pickers and stakeholders.
Develop capacity building plans and resource pool (person and material)
Train and orient trainers with the necessary skills and capacities to support skill development
Lead capacity needs assessment of other institutional actors, as per project requirements
Lead development of relevant IEC materials, demonstration and extension designs, capacity building tools, methodologies and modules

Networking and Partnerships

Identify and develop a mutually beneficial relationship with other networks, grassroots organizations and collectives.
Actively participate in discussion forums, workshops, seminars, write shops and other appropriate events
Coordinate with a variety of partners for ensuring alternative livelihood of the waste pickers.
Enable waste pickers to access schemes and services.

MIS:

Manage all MIS related to area of work.
Responsible for analysis of all MIS data related to area of work.
Responsible for judicious use of financial resources in the project.
Provide analysis of project activities to Program Manager and colleagues as per requirement and reporting schedule.

Program Implementation

Inform and guide the implementation colleagues and partners.
Support and Guide Field coordinators and Community Resource Persons for effective implementation.
Provide administrative and logistical support for project events across target communities as may be required

Other responsibilities

Participate and contribute to the development of work plans of project and partners
Contribute to the preparation of work plans and periodic progress reports of the project for the assigned component
Perform any other task assigned by the line manager as per organizational requirement

KEY RELATIONSHIPS

Able to work closely with reporting manager and the other team members
Able to coordinate with the technical teams and KMU as and when required

QUALIFICATION & EXPERIENCE

Essential

Master’s degree in social work/Social Science/Development Studies
Minimum five years of proven work experience in skill Development programs, job placements and Livelihood initiatives

Preferred

Demonstrated experience in design and development of capacity building methods and tools, related to skill development and employment.
Has experience of preparing analytical/project reports
Willing to travel in operational areas

SKILLS & COMPETENCIES

Communication skills:

High level of proficiency in English is a must
Fluent in Kannada/Tamil/Telugu is essential
Proficiency in computers (knowledge of Ms Office, Excel and power point, etc)

Research skills:

Able to conduct primary and secondary research for identifying the newest trends and incorporate them in program / process approach

Team Management & Collaboration / People skills:

High social intelligence: able to engage and influence teams, create relationships of trust with stakeholders
Adept at co-creation: naturally collaborative and solutions focused
Conflict resolution: comfortable with negotiating and resolving conflict; seeking clarity and testing assumptions
Able to reflect, empathetic, and a good listener

Strategic Thinking and Analysis:

Able to think clearly and rationally and select the best method as appropriate
Able to spot gaps, establish needs and opportunities

Change Management:

Resilient: able to deal well with ambiguity, uncertainty, and change
Flexible: able to adapt well to shifting priorities
Versatile: able to juggle different and conflicting priorities

Operational excellence (Project / Program / Process management):

Able to successfully manage project/process deliverables in stipulated time and budget
Able to incorporate feedback and continually work on project / process improvement

To apply for this job please visit careindiacareers.peoplestrong.com.