Team Leaders: EU Education for Employment in Azerbaijan

About the project

The EU Education for Employment programme seeks to support the creation of employment opportunities, especially within small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs). It will do so by strengthening labour market-oriented education and training systems, helping Vocational Education Training (VET) stakeholders in Azerbaijan to better work together and maintain the activities beyond the lifetime of the action. Through the student career guidance, the action will support gender equality which is challenged by the stereotypical choices of education to counter the gender division and gender pay gap on the labour market.

The British Council is seeking expressions of interest for the roles of Team Leader for the following two direct management projects under the broader programme which we understand will be tendered for this year

Team Leader to manage Output 1: Legal and institutional basis developed at all levels of education (including formal, informal and non-formal) according to the requirements of an Outcome-Based Qualification System (OBS) for Lifelong Learning: 

• Developing legislative and normative documents according to OBS for LLL requirements including state education standards and classifications on VET and HE, the legal basis on validation of informal and non-formal learning, adult education etc; 
• Improvement of an institutional structure to support the establishment of an OBS for LLL (sharing best practice, conducting research, delivering training) and ensuring a link to the European Qualifications Framework (EQF); 
• Improving the registration, monitoring and evaluation systems and providing capacity building for stakeholders to support a functioning OBS for LLL in VET and HE; 
• Support to early specialisation in general education (grade 6-9) with the inclusion of basic soft skills into the curricula, and improving professional orientation services (student guidance, including through counselling their parents). 

Team Leader to manage Output 4: Skill needs/anticipation and development system improved and mechanisms developed for assessment of competences: 

• Improving the system on skills needs anticipation including enhancing the capacity of main stakeholders to better identify skill needs; 
• Improving management, development, digitalisation and use of occupational standards including awareness raising and close cooperation with business/Sector Committees, establishing links between these standards and European Skills, Competences, Qualifications and Occupations (ESCO), as well as integration of relevant classifications, databases and information systems; 
• Developing mechanisms for assessment of competences of unemployed before and after training including development of materials, delivery of training and carry out of pilot tests with involvement of business

About the role

The Team Leaders must be able to work with a high level of autonomy and flexibility, drawing on previous practice and policies, whilst creating new and innovative solutions

They will be accountable for their respective projects:

1. delivery of each project’s technical outputs and results to the satisfaction of the British Council and the European Union
2. the financial management of each project to British Council corporate standards.
3. leading and supervising each project delivery team, both technically and managerially.
4. management and oversight of robust project Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning (MEL) systems and processes
5. providing overall strategic guidance, policy guidelines and assessing aspects of each project progress against targeted results at the annual Project Steering Committee.

The Team Leaders will serve as the respective project’s representative and key point of technical contact for the British Council, the European Union Delegation in Azerbaijan, all project partners and other relevant stakeholders.

Each team leader is expected to be full-time based in Baku with travel to various locations in Azerbaijan to supervise activities under the contract on a regular basis.  *There is the potential for Covid-19 restrictions to impact the location and travel required.

Qualifications and experience required

Minimum requirements:

• Master's degree in Education or in a field relevant to the project and / or Minimum 10 years, and preferably 15 years, of professional experience in TVET, of which at least 3 years living and working abroad; 
• Fluency in oral and written English (at least level 2 on a scale of 1 [excellent] to 5 [basic])
• Ability to draft clear and concise reports, proven by one sample technical paper or analytical report, of which the expert was the lead author; 
• At least 10 years’ experience as Team Leader in similar and /or relevant projects
• Experience managing a team of experts, co-ordinating highly complex activities and liaising with EU institutions or other donors, demonstrated by at least one project of minimum three years duration as team leader.

Desired requirements:

• Command of Azerbaijani, Turkish or Russian would be an asset.
• Experience in project cycle management, with ability to manage and oversee all steps of the project cycle;
• Experience working in Neighbourhood countries or the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA) countries is an advantage.

If you are interested, please send your CV tailored to the above requirements to skills@britishcouncil.org with the title; Team Leader CV for TVET project in Azerbaijan 

Please note we will aim to respond to shortlisted candidates within seven working days of the application submission deadline.