Implementing Agreement for the Delivery of an Accelerated Competency-Based Training (CBT) and Structured Work-Based Learning (WBL) Employment Pathways in Syria

General Background

Years of conflict and economic decline have severely weakened Syria’s infrastructure, public services, labour market systems, and productive sectors, limiting opportunities for economic recovery and sustainable livelihoods. Returnees, internally displaced persons (IDPs), women, youth, and host communities face significant barriers to decent work, skills development, enterprise support, and access to essential services. Although the evolving recovery context creates opportunities to support voluntary, safe, and dignified returns, persistent unemployment, informality, skills mismatches, and weak local economic systems continue to hinder sustainable reintegration and social cohesion. Addressing these challenges is critical to promoting inclusive recovery, resilience, and long-term stability in affected communities.

OF DS - Return and Rebuild: Advancing Voluntary Returns and Sustainable Reintegration for Syrians”

The “Return and Rebuild: Advancing Voluntary Returns and Sustainable Reintegration for Syrians” project is implemented under the PROSPECTS Partnership Phase II Opportunity Fund by UNHCR, UNICEF and ILO, with a regional scope covering Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. The project responds to the evolving displacement and return context following major political and economic shifts in Syria, including the December 2024 political transition and the lifting of international sanctions. These developments have created new opportunities to support voluntary, safe and dignified returns, while also highlighting the urgent need to address barriers faced by Syrian refugees, internally displaced persons and returnees, including limited access to civil documentation, damaged infrastructure, disrupted education, weak labour market systems, unemployment, and fragile social cohesion.

The project seeks to create an enabling environment for sustainable return and reintegration by linking protection, education, skills development, livelihoods, enterprise recovery and social cohesion interventions across host countries and inside Syria. In line with the Humanitarian-Development-Peace Nexus approach of PROSPECTS, the project combines immediate protection and return preparedness with longer-term investments in skills that are relevant to the market and aspirations of learners, decent work opportunities, inclusive enterprise development and institutional capacity-building, ensuring that returnees and host communities can access services, rights and economic opportunities in a coordinated and sustainable manner.

Assignment Objective

The overall objective of this assignment is to accelerate the labour market integration and sustainable reintegration of returnees, internally displaced persons (IDPs), women, youth, and persons with disabilities in Syria through rapid, reconstruction-linked, and market-driven employment pathways that combine accelerated Competency-Based Training (CBT) and structured Work-Based Learning (WBL).

The intervention is fully aligned with the ILO Human Resources Development Convention, 1975 (No. 142), the ILO Human Resources Development Recommendation, 2004 (No. 195), the ILO Employment and Decent Work for Peace and Resilience Recommendation, 2017 (No. 205), the Quality Apprenticeship Recommendation, 2023 (No. 208), and the objectives of the PROSPECTS Phase II Opportunity Fund, the EU Durable Solutions Programme, the ILO Programme of Support for Syria, and the United Nations Transitional Action Plan for Syria.

The intervention aims to improve access to wage employment opportunities for approximately 1,100 returnees, IDPs, vulnerable youth, women, and persons with disabilities in targeted governorates- Aleppo-Idleb and Hamah - through practical learning pathways that respond to labour market demand while reflecting the skills, aspirations, and prior experiences of beneficiaries. By expanding access to market-relevant skills development and workplace learning opportunities, strengthening employer engagement, and creating reconstruction-linked employment pathways, the intervention will enhance employability, facilitate transitions into decent wage employment, and contribute to inclusive economic recovery and sustainable reintegration.

Specific objectives include:

1. Validate existing labour market and skills anticipation studies linked to reconstruction manufacturing, textile and garment, renewable energy, agrifood processing, greenhouse-related occupations, food processing, and selected ICT and digital occupations, through a qualitative process to identify priority sectors, occupations, and competencies in demand that also match the expectations of the targeted learners.
2. Create or update competency standards, training materials and assessments, and train trainers - including in-company trainers - and assessors on them. Ensure occupational safety and health (OSH), Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, awareness of the national labour code and available recourse in case of exploitation are adequately mainstreamed.
3. Deliver accelerated (+/- 3 months) modular CBT programmes for approximately 300 beneficiaries requiring structured competency development prior to workplace placement and implement structured remunerated WBL opportunities for approximately 1100 beneficiaries, including 30% women and 5% learners with disabilities, giving priority to beneficiaries referred though ILO Public Employment Services interventions, including beneficiaries directly entering workplace learning pathways, based on prior experience and competency based assessments. Ensure adequate PPE provision, and workplace protection measures throughout implementation.
4. Implement formative and summative competency-based assessments, organise certification in partnership with national institutions or private sector bodies, and promote transition to employment opportunities. Support the transition of a minimum of 50 per cent of WBL completers to wage employment or self-employment opportunities within three months of graduation, tracked through ILO Service Tracker.

Interested non-profit organizations and entities shall refer to the enclosed TOR for further details and method of aplication regarding this call by 7 July 2026 with queries shared by 30 June the latest.