Overview
The Project Manager - Life Skills and Career Guidance Project will ensure the effective planning, coordination, reporting, and delivery of project components, focusing on equipping adolescents with 21st-century skills for successful transitions from learning to earning.
Key Responsibilities
- Provide coordination of project implementation across all phases, prepare yearly activity plans ensuring timely and quality delivery of results.
- Closely coordinate with UNICEF, CFCU, implementing partners, Ministry of Education, and all relevant stakeholders.
- Support and coordinate Project Steering Committee meetings.
- Oversee contracting, procurement processes, and vendor management.
- Monitor project progress, support project evaluation, monitor budget implementation, manage risks, and ensure adherence to timelines, reporting obligations, and quality standards.
- Lead the technical design and development of Life Skills and Career Guidance curricula.
- Manage the overall development process of training materials, tools, and digital modules.
- Coordinate technical working groups and ensure coherence between national-level policy frameworks and local-level implementation.
- Facilitate collaboration between international and national experts for curriculum design, methodology development, and contextualization.
- Ensure timely submission and coordination of accreditation processes and integration of developed modules.
- Oversee the design and implementation of capacity-building programs, including Trainings of Trainers (ToT) and cascade training models.
- Coordinate the delivery of training sessions, including logistics, facilitation, and follow-up mentoring and coaching support.
- Ensure quality assurance of all training content and delivery methodologies.
- Promote knowledge sharing, peer learning, and networking among educators.
- Track progress against project objectives and ensure systematic monitoring of implementation.
- Lead stocktaking exercises and integrate EU best practices into project implementation.
- Oversee data collection, documentation, and reporting of all project activities.
- Ensure timely preparation of high-quality yearly working plans, technical and financial reports.
- Support UNICEF program manager on donor relation through regular reporting, review meetings, and provision of technical inputs.
- Oversee the design and implementation of awareness-raising activities.
- Ensure inclusive, gender-responsive, and youth-centered approaches across all outreach activities.
- Promote active engagement of students, teachers, and stakeholders.
- Ensure compliance with EU visibility guidelines and consistent attribution to the EU, CFCU, and UNICEF.
- Oversee the development and deployment of digital tools supporting Life Skills and Career Guidance programs.
- Ensure sustainability, maintenance, and technical support mechanisms for all equipment and digital solutions.
Required Experience
- Minimum seven years of experience in management of projects, preferably with managing EU-funded or international education projects
- Strong knowledge of education systems and related areas, including career guidance, life skills development, and digital learning methodologies, with the ability to translate policy into scalable programme interventions.
- Proven experience in coordinating complex, multi-stakeholder programmes, including effective engagement with government institutions, development partners, and international experts, ensuring alignment with national priorities and EU frameworks.
- Demonstrated expertise in monitoring and evaluation, results-based management, budgeting, and high-quality reporting for international/EU-funded projects, ensuring accountability, cost-efficiency, and impact.
- Excellent strategic communication skills, including the ability to design and implement communication and visibility plans, engage diverse stakeholders, and translate technical content into clear, compelling messages for policy dialogue.
- Strong interpersonal and partnership-building skills, with the ability to facilitate coordination across sectors and institutions, manage expectations, and sustain constructive dialogue among stakeholders.
- Excellent organizational and leadership skills, with the capacity to manage large-scale programmes, oversee timelines and deliverables, and ensure quality implementation.
- Outstanding written and verbal communication skills in Albanian and English, including drafting of policy briefs, donor reports, and knowledge products.
Qualifications
Master's degree in Education, Project Management, Social Sciences, or related fields.
