Call for Proposals for Upskilling and Vocational Reskilling Pathways in Palestine

Deadline: 29-Aug-22

Enabel now invites proposals under the Intervention: Youth Economic Empowerment in Palestine (YEP) as part of the EU-funded Youth Empowerment Program.

This invitation to elaborate an action proposal is part of the intervention “Youth Economic Empowerment in Palestine (YEP)”, financed by the European Union and executed through the Belgian Development Agency, Enabel.

The Youth Economic Empowerment in Palestine (YEP) Action aims to address the lack of economic prospects for Palestinian youth, including vulnerable youth and young women, by empowering them to access decent employment opportunities.

Objectives

The Overall Objective of the Palestinian Youth Empowerment Programme is to improve Palestinian youth’s contribution to economic, social and public life.
The general objective of the Action is: “Enhance Palestinian young people’s employability and economic empowerment.”
The specific objective of the Action is: “Young women and men are better equipped to access inclusive and decent employment opportunities.”

Priorities

The priorities for this Call for Proposals, are:

Support continuous learning opportunities to enhance the employability of unemployed graduates of vocational training and higher education institutions, as well as youth workers.
Create new technical upskilling and vocational reskilling pathways adapted to the needs of the labour market, allowing youth graduates and workers to acquire specific, new or complementary technical competencies and/or transversal skills, and ultimately increase their career opportunities.
Address persistent and specific skill gaps in the labour force and help youth to better adapt to fast-changing work environments and occupational requirements characterizing the 21st century economy.
Bridge skill gaps in the labour market, embedding up- and reskilling opportunities in a broader vision of lifelong learning, based on a systematic analysis of training needs and includes structural linkages with the world of work.
Enhance the involvement of the private sector in identifying training needs, as well as the design, implementation and evaluation of the training programmes
Promote the coordination of lifelong learning opportunities at the policy level through advocacy and collaboration with the TVET Commission, its board members and other development partners.
Support private sector companies in mitigating the impact of Covid-19 and the protracted crisis in Palestine through matching up-skilling their workers.

Funding Information

The total indicative amount available under this Call for Proposals is 350,000 EUR.
Any grant application under this Call for Proposals must fall between the following amounts:
- Minimum 50.000 EURO (fifty thousand euro)
- Maximum of 100.000 EURO (one hundred thousand euro)
The initial term of an action may not be less than 8 months or exceed 14 months.

Target Groups

The direct beneficiaries of the project are youth between (18-29) years old, including vulnerable youth and young women, who recently graduated from universities and other higher education and TVET institutions. As this is a reskilling and upskilling training program; beneficiaries’ educational /training background or experience must be relevant to the training and economic sector that they will join. The project needs to ensure the participation of at least 50% of graduates classified as vulnerable youth, and at least 40% women.
Vulnerable youth are those who face additional barriers to employment or are usually not sufficiently equipped to benefit from job placement programmes or entrepreneurship programmes. While the selection criteria will be further finetuned by the implementing partners and Enabel during the implementation of each of the respective projects through developing a targeting strategy for selected the beneficiaries, the following selection criteria for beneficiaries are proposed:
Age and family size and structure (women breadwinners) and number of dependents

Geographical Location

Economic Vulnerability and poverty levels
The projects need to provide attention to gender-neutrality of the proposals to assure that the profiles envisaged are gender neutral or are stimulating female employment. At least 40% of the beneficiaries should be female.

Geographical Coverage

The actions must be implemented in Palestine covering one (or more) of the following regions:

East-Jerusalem
Gaza
West Bank

Eligibility Criteria

To be admissible for grants, the applicants must satisfy the following conditions:
- be a legal person; and
- be a local non-profit private entity or a foundation; and
- be a Private Sector Umbrella Organization (PSUO); and
- be established in Palestine; and
- be directly responsible for the preparation and management of the action with the co-applicant(s) and not be acting as an intermediary; and
- must have an active bank account for the past 24 months; and
- must have audited financial statements (income statement and balance sheet) of the last closed financial year
Co-applicant(s)
- The call for proposal must be submitted by at least two (and maximum 5) actors: one lead applicant who applies together with one (or maximum 4) selected training providers as coapplicants. The proposal can target 1 (or more) geographical regions.
- The co-applicant(s) shall participate in specifying the implementation of the action, and the costs that they incur shall be eligible in the same way as those incurred by the applicant.