Common Good Latest Available Job Opportunity

South Africa’s unemployment rate in the third quarter of 2019 is 29.1%. With no signs of slowing down, it is clear we are facing a national crisis with unimaginable repercussions.

According to Stats SA, black youth between 25 and 34 years of age bear the brunt of this and are now less skilled than their parents and white contemporaries. This is a sobering thought. The reasons for this are numerous, but the results are far more concerning and paint a picture of a growing number of disgruntled, unengaged young South Africans dependent upon the state for survival.  Unemployment and inequality are stubbornly and unsustainably high.

One of the key strategic goals for Common Good’s ‘The Zanokhanyo Network’ in 2020 is to strengthen our Work Readiness Curriculum for replication and allow for the improved employability of our graduates. Common Good intends to contract a consultant to lead and deliver on this project in collaboration with TZN staff and potentially other project team resources that may be required to fulfil project outcomes and deliverables.
Parties requesting the proposal

 

 

Job Title: Curriculum Development Project Lead
Location: South Africa

 

Common Good was founded by Common Ground Church in 2005 as an independent and registered faith based non-profit. What began as a staff of two people, has grown into multiple teams of development practitioners and specialists. On any given day, we impact thousands of lives in Cape Town and beyond through our Early Life, Education and Employment initiatives. We believe that investing in these three areas, while mobilising the church to live and act justly, has the greatest potential for positive change in our society. Common Good has well-established programmes, a good track record and a solid management and governance structure in place. For more information on Common Good please refer to our organisational overview.

Background information

The Zanokhanyo Network (TZN)

The Zanokhanyo Network, Common Good’s employment initiative celebrated 11 years of implementation in July and has positively impacted thousands of under and unemployed people since 2008. The Zanokhanyo Network offers transformative work-readiness training and connections to employment opportunities. The holistic, 13-day course restores dignity and hope by empowering the unemployed with the confidence, skills, and resources they need to obtain meaningful work.

Graduates have access to assisted job-searching and our placement team works to connect them to meaningful opportunities, including employment, internships, and ongoing studies. This year we’ll train over six hundred unemployed people, thanks to an agile training model which enables us to take job readiness beyond our central hub and community-based access points, to additional communities further afield.

Since inception our vision has always been that TZN would be replicable – with one mechanism of scale being FBO/local church communities implementing the programme with Common Good offering support and mentorship in the process.

Goals of the curriculum development project

The purpose of this project is to revise the curriculum in such way that it will achieve the following:

• Replicability – ensure that the Job Readiness course can be facilitated by parties other than the TZN Job Readiness Training Team.
• Improved employability – ensure that the course further improves its impact on graduate employability.
• Increased measurability of impact for graduates and other stakeholders

Secondly to produce a Train-the-facilitator manual. In the preferred future the TZN base will focus far more on training the trainer than on direct delivery of training to clients. Consequently a “train the facilitator” curriculum needs to be developed.

The scope of the project:

Scope of curriculum revisions.

To achieve these goals the following revisions are required.

The curriculum needs to change in the following ways:

• The facilitator: in the current model the curriculum demands a lot from the facilitator –
• it is emotionally intense – and does not allow them enough recovery time for their own wellness and wellbeing.
• It demands a certain level of skills and experience
• The curriculum still needs to achieve the same impact with a different kind of human resource and trainer should not be having to speak from 9-4pm everyday
• Instructional methods: we need to explore new methodologies for learning – including incorporating more videos as a component
• Inclusion: the training needs to be more mindful of different education levels
• The training needs to become more of a work simulator:  we need to create the mindset that when clients participate, they are “coming to work” without losing the sense of community our programme gives to participants. This has implications for punctuality, presence, dress, communication.
• Enhanced pre-screening to ensure the following:
• Facilitators have a better sense of education/skills/experience levels
• Clients have a basic grasp of the English language – and can be referred to English classes if they need it
• To generate baseline data that we can use to measure progress against
• Enhanced assessments -regular assessments need to be included to monitor the impact of each module, and the training. Data from assessments should also help inform the trainer on whether training outcomes have been successfully achieved in a session
• Opportunity focused: the curriculum needs to strengthen participants’ ability to recognise the assets and opportunities they do have access to.

Core elements of the training that must not change

There is a lot that is working well in the current curriculum and these elements must be considered when making the revisions. Elements that are working and must be retained include:

• The focus and intentionality on the core issues that underly unemployment and hopelessness namely: identity, purpose and belonging.
• The course includes Christian content and is underpinned by Christian values that have a huge impact on increasing hope, purpose, self-love, forgiveness and dignity

Project deliverables

• The production of a high-quality participants’ manual
• The production of a Facilitator’s manual
• The production of all supporting materials and appropriate videos and video clips (these will be about 25)

The development of a clear, implementable train the facilitators model document and manual and all supporting materials

• Work with a suitable provider for video production

Time frames

The project will commence in the beginning of January 2020 and must be completed by the end of June 2020.

Defining the project

The selected project manager will be responsible for developing a project plan which will be signed off by TZN’s Leader and the CEO of Common Good.
The role of the project manager will be required to oversee the development and improvements to the Work Readiness Curriculum and the Train the Facilitator programme. This person will be responsible for driving the whole process through the initial meeting and exploratory phases, making use of the current materials and knowledge within the TZN Training Team, testing it within a classroom setting and ensuring the production of high-quality final products for future use.

He/ She will project manage the development of a revised Work-Readiness course including the design of the course content, the presentation methodology, develop assessment tools and all supporting materials required to successfully facilitate the course and oversee any video production. This must include testing the various changes in a class setting and adjust the final product as needed. The project manager will be responsible for making sure the project is completed on time, within budget and to agreed artistic and technical standards. This includes ensuring that copyright issues are dealt with.

Minimum requirements and selection process:

All interested individuals must fulfil the following requirements:

• Availability – applicants must be able to lead and complete the project within the stated time – January 2020 – June 2020
• A minimum of 5 years of experience in curriculum development
• Relevant tertiary qualification
• Strong strategic and organisational skills
• Excellent project-management skills and the ability to work cross-functionally
• In depth understanding of training methodology
• Experience in measurement and evaluation of training initiatives and the outcomes they hope to achieve
• A track record of having led and successfully delivered on projects of this nature
• Understanding of instructional design methodologies

Ideally the candidate has the following skills, knowledge and attributes:

• Passionate about development, social justice and the realisation of human potential
• Insight into the unemployed, the associated barriers to employment and the behaviour change required to become employable
• Knowledge on the economic opportunities that exist in SA and how individuals marginalised from these, can better access them
• Motivated by and is aligned with Common Good’s vision, mission, and values
• A team player – who demonstrates humility, people skills and is simultaneously goal driven and ambitious, sociable with an ability to team well with a diverse group of people
• Excellent communication skills
• High levels of discipline and persistence in seeking solutions for complex problems
• An ability to grasp the big picture and vision but simultaneously dive into and ensure an attention to detail that will result in trust- worthy recommendations built on rigorously explored concepts and ideas
• Adaptive and flexible and can respond with agility to new insights gleaned during the project
• Resourceful – this project will require gleaning information and insights from various sources
• Ability to outsource certain project functions and expertise

To apply

Individuals interested in applying to lead this “TZN Curriculum Development Project” need to prepare and submit the following to stacey.calvert@commongood.org.za.

• CV – which includes information that demonstrates you meet the minimum requirements
• Motivational letter including your current availability
• A proposal project plan detailing how you would approach this project (no more than 4 pages). Please include assumptions you are making, questions you would like answered and an estimate budget
• 3 references that will speak to your experience and success in implementing projects like this one

 

Application Deadline: Thursday 5^th December 2019