Company Profile

Catholic Relief Services is the official international humanitarian agency of the Catholic community in the United States. CRS works to save, protect, and transform lives in need in more than 100 countries, without regard to race, religion or nationality. CRS’ relief and development work is accomplished through programs of emergency response, HIV, health, agriculture, education, microfinance and peacebuilding. CRS Ghana was established in 1958, a year after Ghana gained independence. In Ghana, CRS works with local partners to tackle poverty on several fronts including improving health and nutrition; increasing access to safe water and improved sanitation; promoting agriculture to enhance food security; and increasing financial assets through Savings and Internal Lending Communities. 

Job Description

• Department: Programming
• Salary Grade: 9
• Location: Tamale, Ghana
• Reports to: Youth and Migration PM

Job Summary:

In this position, you will manage, coordinate, and monitor project activities and relationships with partners and other project stakeholders to lead the implementation of the CRS Education 2 Employment (E2E) project in Ghana. In this project, CRS will draw from evidence based approaches to identify appropriate, effective practices in areas of youth inclusion, TVET center capacity strengthening and support, and advocacy to strengthen private education businesses that improve equitable access to quality and relevant education and training for youth, contributing to greater youth employability and a more inclusive economy. The incumbent for this position will bring strong project management skills and deep knowledge of positive youth development, vocational training approaches, and youth employment. The incumbent will ensure that CRS delivers high-quality programming and impact under this project.

Key Working Relationships:

• Internal: Youth and Migration PM, Country Representative, Head of Programs, Head of Operations, WARO E2E Project Manager, WARO Regional Technical Advisors, HQ Senior Technical Advisors
• External: TVETs, International Labor Organization, Ministry of Education and the Council for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (COTVET), Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference, private sector partners, Network on Technical and Vocational Education Training (NETTVET), Vocational Training for Females (VTF), Universities, Investisseurs & Partenaires (I&P); other stakeholders as defined.

Roles and Key Responsibilities

• You will provide technical leadership in this project in areas of positive youth development, technical vocational education, capacity strengthening, and youth employment. Strong collaborative skills in partner accompaniment and capacity strengthening are essential. 
• You will assure strong budget management, monitoring and reporting activities through the project cycle - start-up, implementation, and close-out - in line with CRS program quality principles and standards, donor requirements, and good practices. 
• Effectively manage talent and supervise as needed. Manage team dynamics and staff well-being. Provide coaching, strategically tailor individual development plans, contribute to the recruitment process of project staff, and complete performance management for direct reports.
• Ensure learning properly accompanies project activities throughout the project cycle. Support accountability through coordinating project evaluation activities following MEAL Policy. Proactively identify issues, report them to inform adjustments to plans and implementation schedules. 
• Engage and strengthen partnerships with TVETs and other local institutions under to E2E, applying appropriate application of partnership concepts, tools, and approaches.
• Represent the organization with donors, INGO working groups, UN, relevant local partners and relevant local government and community actors within the youth technical area
• Coordinate activities required for ensuring the financial, material, and human resources for the quality implementation of the project. Conduct periodic budget reviews and follow-up with partners on timely submission of financial reports to facilitate proper tracking of resource use.
• Assist with preparation of trends analysis reports and disseminate results. Review project documentation to ensure project file is complete with all required documentation and is filed per agency and donor requirements.

Required Skills or Experience

Basic Qualification

• Bachelor's Degree required. Master’s Degree in international studies or in the field of development, economics, or business would be a plus.
• Minimum of 5 years of work experience in project management, ideally in the field of youth development, vocational training, and employment for an NGO.
• Relevant grant management experience, especially for USG or other public donors, a plus.
• Experience working with stakeholders at various levels and strengthening community partnerships.
• Experience analyzing data and contributing to evaluation reports.
• Ability to contribute to the development of technical proposals, a plus.
• Additional experience may substitute for some education.
• Required Languages - English fluency required
• Travel - Must be willing and able to travel up to 30%.
• Supervisory Responsibilities: None

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

• Critical thinking and creative problem-solving skills with ability to make sound judgment.
• Strong relationship management skills and the ability to work effectively with local stakeholders. Representation abilities.
• Proactive, results-oriented, and service-oriented
• Attention to details, accuracy, and timeliness in executing assigned responsibilities

Agency-wide Competencies (for all CRS Staff)
These are rooted in the mission, values, and guiding principles of CRS and used by each staff member to fulfill his or her responsibilities and achieve the desired results. 

• Integrity 
• Continuous Improvement & Innovation
• Builds Relationships 
• Develops Talent
• Strategic Mindset
• Accountability & Stewardship