Call for Proposals: Grants to Improve Employment Opportunities and Increase the Competitiveness of Graduates of VET Institutions in Ukraine

Deadline: 01-Jul-2020

With this announcement, the United Nations Program for Reconstruction and Peacebuilding announces a grant competition for non-governmental organizations in partnership with vocational (technical) education institutions (VET), potential employers and other partners. The competition aims to improve employment opportunities and increase the competitiveness of graduates of vocational (technical) education institutions, by supporting partnership initiatives that strengthen links between state (PA) and the State Employment Service, government and local government) and private (business) institutions.

Projects should offer realistic and well-thought-out activities in the field of cooperation of vocational education institutions with employers (including with the participation of the employment service), raise awareness of youth in target areas about employment opportunities, create tools for effective cooperation between P (PT) O institutions and employers.

The financial administration of the grant competition is entrusted to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).

Prepared projects must comply with the general principles of public-private partnership:

mutual respect between all parties
transparency of intentions and actions
accountability and predictability of all parties
legitimacy of public-private partnership
flexibility, continuous training and monitoring of results
fairness, inclusiveness and empowerment for the benefit of students and graduates of P (PT) O institutions

The idea of public-private partnership plays an important role in finding and establishing new mechanisms for solving financial, property and substantive problems of vocational education institutions. The normative basis for its development are memoranda (agreements) on cooperation between the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine and powerful companies / enterprises, public and trade union organizations. The main purpose of such a public-private partnership is to combine the efforts of various parties to improve the quality of training of workers, modernization of the system of vocational (vocational) education. Currently, there are few examples of such cooperation in the target areas, so this competition is part of the process of finding effective solutions for the implementation and testing of public-private partnership practices.

Projects can be developed in the following areas (but not limited to):

Introduction of innovations in various aspects of the educational process with the participation of stakeholders, updating training programs;
Modernization of the educational environment (including equipment upgrades, implementation of technological solutions, increasing the use of modern technologies, digitalization of education);
Creation of new structures that promote the development of cooperation between different stakeholders (centers of career counseling, psychological support, the creation of Supervisory Boards, associations, networks);
Creating a positive image of VET and vocational education in general, strengthening the position of institutions in the market of educational services in the region in the context of regional development – image, attractiveness, employers and students;
Enhancing the participation of employers, especially small and medium enterprises in the processes of modernization of the educational environment and improving the image of the vocational education system;
Coordination of efforts between employment centers and the broad representation of the vocational education system on the system of retraining and other issues;
Providing access to up-to-date information on the labor market, simplification and acceleration of contacts between employers and graduates of P (PT) O institutions;
Diversification of forms of career guidance work (offline and online) and promotion of conscious choice of future profession, search for non-standard solutions for activities aimed at awareness of the peculiarities of vocational education.

From the point of view of design logic, proposals must meet the following requirements:

have a clearly defined target audience to which project activities will be directed;
have clear goals that can be achieved with the resources provided and in a timely manner;
have clear short-term and long-term results and defined quantitative and qualitative performance indicators;
outline the mechanism of coordination of partnership activities and present the division of functions and responsibilities of partners

Funding Information

It is expected that the received project proposals will be funded in the amount of 15,000 to 30,000 euros (in hryvnia equivalent).
The duration of the proposed projects should not exceed 8 months.

Geography of the Competition

Territories of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts controlled by the government of Ukraine;
Berdyansk, Primorsky, Pryazovsky, Orikhivsky, Huliaipilsky, Yakymivsky, Bilmatsky, Melitopol and Tokmatsky districts of Zaporozhye region and the cities of Berdyansk, Melitopol and Tokmak.

Eligibility Criteria

In each project, a public-private partnership (PPP) must be provided, ie cooperation between a public institution (P (O) institution) and a private institution (employer, ie business or business association).
A partnership between the NGO applying for the project, the institution (or institutions) P (PT) O and employers is mandatory. The presence of other partners, in particular the State Employment Service or the authorities and local governments, is desirable but not mandatory. All partnerships must be documented (letters or memoranda).
The direct applicants of the competition (and future executors of projects) are public and charitable organizations, unions and associations of entrepreneurs and other non-profit organizations. They must meet the following requirements:
- be an officially registered legal entity with the status of a non-profit organization (non-profit codes, 0032, 0034, 0036, 0038, 0039, 0044, 0045, 0046, 0047, 0048);
- have documented experience of implementing at least two projects in the last five years, the cost of at least one of the projects must be at least 20,000 euros;
- have a proven organizational, technical and human capacity to coordinate public-private partnerships and to develop, organize and implement activities in the target regions of the competition. In this case, the partners-employers must be located in the target regions of the competition, but the official place of registration of the applicant (non-profit organization) does not matter and can be located in any (including non-target) region of Ukraine.
The partnership of a non-profit organization with a public and private institution must be documented by a letter of partnership, memorandum, letter of commitment to implement the project or other document that clearly understands the intention to cooperate, awareness of all parties with the project proposal and division of responsibilities between partners.

For more information, visit https://www.ua.undp.org/content/ukraine/uk/home/recovery-and-peacebuilding/grant-opportunities-UN-RPP/vacation-training-and-employment-support-for-youth-in-eastern-uk.html?cq_ck=1592223375013