Terms of Reference (TOR) for the regional expert on jobseeker analysis Region 7/The Philippines
Designation : Regional expert on jobseeker analysis
Location : Home-based/Region
Assignment duration: Assignment for a total of 24 workdays, on an intermittent basis, from June 14 (tentative), 2021 to December 31, 2022.
I. Background Information
The Skills for Prosperity Project in the Philippines (SfP Philippines; the Project), funded by the UK Global Prosperity Fund and implemented by the International Labour Organization (ILO) and GJASD International, works with key government agencies, employers’ organisations, trade unions and other stakeholders to further boost skills development and TVET systems in the country. SfP Philippines aims to enhance national capacity to increase inclusive, mutually beneficial economic development resulting from greater, more equitable employability and productivity by enabling policies and practices that ensure cost-effectiveness, access, and sustained quality of TVET.
The Project has four areas of technical operations:
- Enhanced equity. The Project shall facilitate broadening of access to skills development and TVET systems for marginalized groups – prioritizing youth and women – by incorporating gender and social inclusion as a key element in all activities, and by providing technical advice for the adoption of necessary changes in national, regional and provincial policies, strategies, regulations and institutional arrangements. Additionally, it also develops and applies training approaches that specifically meet the needs of marginalized groups to open up the TVET system to more people in the country.
- Improved quality of skills and TVET systems. It aims to assist in the process of developing upgraded competency standards and of their application to development of TVET programmes curricula, and competency assessment and certification to meet the increasing requirements of the economy for a higher skilled workforce. Additionally, it aims to enhance TVET competency assessment and certification through wider use of digital technologies.
- Enhanced industry relevance of skills and TVET systems. The Project seeks to contribute to labour market information system strengthening, particularly in data collection and analysis of job market demand for skilled workforce. Moreover, it also promotes adoption of lifelong learning principles and recognition of workers who gained professional qualifications through various skills development mechanisms. It also promotes a learner-centred approach in TVET.
- Improved cost-effectiveness of TVET system’s financing. It will review the country’s practices on industry engagement and stakeholder participation in TVET financing, and assists in development and piloting a joint public-private financing mechanism, aiming for greater private sector participation in TVET financing. Ultimately, this initiative will bring about affordability and greater effectiveness of the TVET system.
The major strategy of the Project is enhancing the capacity of policy makers, staff of relevant ministries and technical agencies in the areas relevant to the above Project outcomes. This includes development and sharing of technical knowledge and methodologies, training in concepts and techniques, and implementation of pilot projects. The Project will strengthen regional and national knowledge-sharing in the area of the regional labour market analysis and TVET delivery planning.
II. The assignment
The Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) system in the Philippines has a potential to help the country reduce skills gaps and shortages and ultimately improve labour market outcomes. However, there are risks that the regional TVET may contribute to the mismatch between demand and supply of labour force. To reduce such risks, there is a need to develop and apply a specific set of labour market information enabling to improve planning of TVET delivery in the region.
This assignment is implemented within the Project area “Enhanced relevance of TVET systems to the market demand for skilled labour” (Output 3). The SfP Philippines aims to implement pilot projects in each of the three regions (Regions 6, 7 and 8 of the Philippines) to test the international approaches to the analysis of supply and demand for labour force and its application to TVET planning. This will enable to transform regional TVET delivery into the labour market demand-driven training.
Over the period of assignment, the expert is required to participate in a number of the Project events such as:
- collection and processing of regional data
- speaking at the regional training workshop
- presentation of findings at the pilot completion workshop in the Region
This assignment is concerned with the analysis of data on jobseekers, by occupation and qualification level, in the Region. The occupational structure of jobseekers is an important element of the LMIS. The jobseekers, covered by this assignment, involve residents of the region:
- whose job applications remain active at the centres of Public Employment Service (PES) and the private Employment Services in the Region at the time of conducting the survey
- whose job applications remain active at the job-matching websites,
- who returned to the Region from the outside job placements (labour migration)
Important definitions
- “Jobseekers” are defined as the “persons who seek employment or seek to change their jobs”, but not necessarily the legally registered unemployed.
- “Skilled” jobseekers include the professionally trained and educated workers, Technician Diploma holders and the tertiary graduates. Skilled workers are considered qualified if they acquired the occupation on training program or on-job. In order to be regarded as technicians or the HE Diploma holders, persons should possess formal awards.
- Definitions of groups of jobseekers by qualification level should be aligned to the specifications of the national qualification types/levels of the NQF of the Philippines. Persons, seeking managerial jobs, are considered to be the HE graduates.
- Data on jobseekers by the occupational profile should carry codes of the National Classification of Occupations (NOC)
- Data on unskilled jobseekers should not be included, except the total share of unskilled jobseekers in each of the above three groups.
III. The Outcomes/Deliverables
The following outcomes/deliverables will be implemented in this assignment:
Outcome/Deliverable 1 (10 workdays):
- To describe the process of registration of jobseekers by occupation and of follow-up on applications of jobseekers by the public and private employment services in the region; to assess the process of registration and the degree of the actual currency of occupational data of applicants;
- To collect, tabulate and analyze data on skilled jobseekers, by occupation, whose applications to seek employment or change jobs remain active at the time of data collection in the Public Employment Service (PES) and the private Employment Service in the Region (see draft Template 1 attached). Sources of data should be quoted in the report. This Outcome is to be based on the primary sources of information.
- All occupations should be accompanied by the SOC codes.
- To develop a brief proposal on improvement of the data registration and analysis on skilled job seekers by occupation in the PES system enabling their utilization for planning of TVET delivery in the region.
- To produce a short assignment report with the above data
- To make a brief presentation at the training workshop in the respective Region
Outcome/Deliverable 2 (6 workdays):
- To collect, tabulate and analyze data on the skilled jobseekers who are residents in the Region, and whose job advertisements on job-matching sites remain active at the time of data collection. Sources of data should be quoted in the report. (see Draft Template 2). This Outcome can be based on secondary sources of data.
- To produce a short assignment report with the above data
- To develop a brief proposal on improvement of the collection and analysis of data on skilled jobseekers, who place vacancies on job matching sites, enabling their utilization for planning of TVET delivery in the region.
- All occupations should be accompanied by the SOC codes.
Outcome/Deliverable 3 (6 workdays):
- To collect, tabulate and analyze data on labour migrants, by occupation, who entered the Region and who left the Region for work assignments in the last 12 months. This Outcome can be based on secondary sources of data (see Draft Template 3)
- To produce a short assignment report with the above data
Outcome/Deliverable 4 (2 workdays):
- To prepare and make a presentation at the pilot project completion workshop in the Region.
IV. Management arrangements
Expert will work under the direct supervision of the Chief Technical Adviser (CTA) of the Project and coordinate activities and schedules with other experts in the regional team. Technical support to this assignment will be provided by the team of the International Contractor for the ILO (GJASD International). Expert should cooperate with and seek support from the regional office of TESDA and, if need be, from regional branches of relevant ministries and agencies (Department of Labor, Department of Education, the Philippines Statistics Authority, and major stakeholders’ bodies) which will be informed on the purpose of this assignment within the ILO Project.
V. Fees and payment terms
The fee for this assignment will be payable within the established timeframe following submission of related Deliverables to the satisfaction of the ILO, subject to approval of the related reports and data. Terms and conditions for the assignment are as per the ILO rules and procedures for external collaboration and service contracts.
The fee for the assignment will cover the travel-related expenses, if any, in Region. The regional expert is expected to carry out the assignment in the home-based mode and, as required, interact with relevant counterparts mentioned in Section IV.
VI. Documents to be submitted
Interested parties are requested to submit the following documents to demonstrate their qualifications:
- Curriculum Vitae of consultants to be involved
- Proposal including an extended description of the approach to be followed in implementing the proposed scope of work
- Estimated budget (financial proposal), i.e., professional fees (daily rate) and other expenses, for completing the work
- Sample work (reports of similar work done by the consultant)
The interested parties are requested to submit the above documents electronically (in PDF format) to mnlsfpproject@ilo.org by June 4, 2021 by 4:00 P.M. GMT+8.
A prospective bidding party requiring any clarification of the TOR document may notify ILO on or before May 28, 2021 at 4:00 P.M. GMT+8, via email at the following address: mnlsfpproject@ilo.org. The ILO’s response will be made via email within three (3) business days only to the respective bidder that requested clarification. A written copy of the response (including an explanation of the query but without identifying the source of inquiry) will be placed on the same web page on which the present TOR is posted.
Short-listed bidders will be contacted for further review and negotiations, as may be necessary.
TEMPLATES
Draft Template 1. Occupational structure of skilled job seekers whose applications are active in the public and private employment services in the Region
Please see attached TOR.