Consultancy for conducting a labor market assessment for youth in Bekaa

Background:

Save the Children International’s (SCI) livelihood program in Lebanon aims to enhance the economic and community-based resilience of vulnerable host and refugee population including youth and adult women and men in Bekaa region. Activities under this program include support for market-integrated livelihoods and income generating (entrepreneurship) opportunities and improved skills for economic self-reliance.

SCI is planning to support vulnerable households of Lebanese or Syrian origins to initiate or maintain their small-scale income generating activity through skills trainings and in kind support. In this respect SCI is looking for a consultant to conduct a Labour Market and Skills Gap Assessment in North Lebanon to inform the project activities.

SCI has been implementing home-based skills trainings in Akkar and Bekaa for over 5 years, and recently added market-based skills trainings as a part of livelihood programming in Bekaa. Over this period there have also been a number of developments in the sector, including a large number of NGOs providing similar trainings and comparatively few who successfully linked to jobs integration or entrepreneurship activities.

Market assessments conducted by INGOs and UN agencies indicate that there are opportunities for growth for MSMEs or wage employment in multiple sectors. A 2-year project to be implemented in Bekaa (including Arsal) will provide business development training to MSMEs, vocational training to vulnerable youth and access to sectors of agriculture, production, services, trade, energy and ICT, as well as training for home-based entrepreneurs. In order to reach these opportunities, it is essential that trainings are followed by a period of individual coaching to connect trained jobseekers to employment opportunities, and to connect home-based entrepreneurs to markets.

Role: Consultancy for conducting a labor market assessment for youth in Bekaa

Supervisor: Food Security and Livelihoods (FSL) Coordinator/Adviser

Timeframe of the assignment: July 2019

Location: Bekaa

Date of ToR: 03 June 2019

Scope of the consultancy:

The consultant is a national expert from the private sector, with a background in jobs integration in rural and urban contexts and small-scale entrepreneurship. This consultant will conduct a Youth Labor Market and Skills Gap assessment to identify employment and income generating opportunities in Bekaa area of Lebanon and identify the promising vocational sectors. The importance of conducting these assessments sterns from the existence of a skills gap in the Lebanese market place. Lebanese companies complain about not finding the skilled labor they need. The YLMA will inform the design of the program and will enable SCI and our partner Makhzoumi Foundation to identify at least 3 suitable vocational trainings courses. The objective is to collect robust quantitative and qualitative data about the labor market in Bekaa, the hiring preferences and practices of employers in the region, and the skills necessary for young people seeking employment. The YLMA methodology will be a combination of surveys, interviews and focus groups discussions and key informants interviews and aims to achieve the following key objectives:

The consultant is expected to provide high level support to SCI and MF services to the field team. The consultant will be expected to meet regularly at the SCI office in Zahle, Beirut and Makhzoumi Foundation offices in Zahle, Baalbak and Beirut.

Objectives

- Apply a supply / demand analysis in each of the three regions (Centeral, West and North Bekaa ) to identify the following:

Supply Side of the Market:

Working Conditions

Barriers to Enter the Market

Demand Side of the Market:

Sectors Mapping

Skills, Hiring Practices and Challenges

Identify high potential grow sectors/sub sectors and employment trends in Bekaa area. 

- Analyze current employment practices and skills in demand in the local labour market.

- Identify potential employment and self-employment opportunities for vulnerable community members.

- Identify and recommend relevant vocational trainings which match the market‘s demand in the targeted area.

Assessment target area: Central, West and North Bekaa.

Required competencies:

The successful candidate will have the following required qualifications:

- Minimum of 5 years of professional experience providing Labor market assessments.

- Leading edge creativity in market-based livelihood solutions to low-income or otherwise vulnerable communities.

- Demonstrable experience in development, design, and facilitation of needed assessment tools of FGDs and KII.

- Demonstrable knowledge and experience in working with NGOs, including excellence in monitoring and reporting.

- Experience with promoting participatory monitoring and evaluation techniques is highly desirable.

- Strong written and oral communication skills, with demonstrated ability of making effective presentations to socially and economically diverse attendees; fluency in both English and Arabic.

- Clear understanding of the political, geographical and economic dynamics of Bekaa areas, including Arsal.