Cluster Development Specialist at Adam Smith International

Tracking Code: 952-112
Location: Katsina    Application Link

                Kaduna Application Link

                 Jigawa  Application Link

                     Kano   Application Link
Reporting to: Job Placement and Private Sector Engagement Lead
Department: Private Sector Development
Position Type: Full-Time/Regular

Background

• MAFITA is a 6-year DFID-funded programme working in Nigeria’s northern states, with a vision to empower marginalised youths and women through the provision of increased economic opportunities and social inclusion.

About MAFITA
Northern Nigeria has high-youth unemployment, insecurity and limited economic opportunities. MAFITA aims to assist 68,000 marginalised young people - with a particular emphasis on adolescent girls and Almajirai - to find gainful employment. By 2021, the program will create a net total of 43,300 full-time equivalent jobs and assisted 23,500 micro and small enterprises (MSEs). The project will tackle the supply and demand side of the labour market, focussing on the delivery of skills essential for employment, as well as the absorptive capacity of the labour market.

MAFITA will partner with public and private stakeholders to improve access to relevant and quality training, mentorship, work experience, business development, and financial services for marginalised youths and women. The programme will also support local market systems to enable the absorption of MAFITA’s target beneficiaries into sustainable income-generating activities.

Position Overview

• The Cluster Development Specialist will monitor and guide the cluster champions’ work.
• He/she will serve a dual role as a capacity builder of the cluster campions and as the on-the-ground person for the Apprenticeship and LED team.

Responsibilities

• The Katsina Cluster Development Specialist is expected to support the development of trade clusters within MAFITA and act as the key interface between functional groups/businesses, MCPs, cluster champions and trade associations identifying market linkages and capacity gaps.
• He/she will provide capacity building support to cluster development assistants and directly to cluster champions and MCPs to ensure quality delivery of relevant training and enterprise growth.

Specific responsibilities will include, but not be limited to:

• Liaising between MAFITA Apprenticeship and LED interventions and identifying areas of synergy and collaboration
• Supporting enterprise growth of clusters through the development of business development strategies plan and matching to BDS and A2F solutions
• Support the formalization of trade clusters through registration and adaptions of cooperative models
• Support periodic meetings between trade clusters and encourage good business practices
• Oversee the monitoring and reporting mechanisms between MCP clusters and MAFITA and identify innovative means to track progress
• Identify innovative and sustainable solutions that can support the apprenticeship model, encouraging sustained interest and motivation of MCPs and trade clusters
• Provide regular updates and reports to the apprenticeship and TVET units on the quality and relevance of apprenticeship training in line with the required standards
• Provide regular updates to the LED team on the effectiveness of BDS and A2F activities as well as other areas of need identified

Qualifications
The following qualifications are required:

• Degree relating to Business Management, Business Administration, Economics or similar fields
• At least 5 years’ experience working with enterprise development and/or cluster initiatives
• Knowledge and experience in cluster support initiatives and monitoring of cluster requirements
• Experience in preparation of action plans designed to recraft observed challenges within industrial clusters
• Experience in working with the private sector, training and skills development preferable
• Excellent people skills and ability to communicate with a range of stakeholders, both written and oral
• Time management
• Competent knowledge in English and Hausa, spoken and written
• Relevant computer proficient, experience in using Microsoft tools and/or any relevant software.

Required Skills and Experience:

• The Cluster Development Specialist should bring a commitment to the programme’s overall aims of providing sustainable livelihood opportunities to marginalized young people across our core states of operation.
• The preferred candidate will bring a strong work ethic to a lively and dedicated team of professionals.

Duration and Location:

• This is a full-time position, commencing as soon as possible with an anticipated 160 days of input until 31st March 2018, but with scope to increase this depending on budgetary constraints.
• The Specialist will be based in the Katsina project office with some travel to Kano later in the year.