PETCO Ethiopia is implementing 5-year of consortium project joint with Center of Accelerated Women Economic Empowerment (CAWEE) and Ethiopia Enterprise Development. The program is funded by the MasterCard Foundation contract to Enable Young Women and Men to Find Dignified and Fulfilling Work in Manufacturing in Ethiopia by capacitating existing SMEs. The program aims to:

• Build SME capacity to sustainably create new jobs and improve existing ones through offering tailored business capacity building and mentorship; enhancing access to markets and raw materials flow; and improving SMEs’ human resources capacity to create safe and inclusive working conditions for young women and men.
• Improve Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) offerings to better prepare women and youth to enter the workforce (facilitate school-to-work transition).
• Facilitate a robust financial ecosystem to help SMEs access tailored financial services that allow them to grow and increase employment opportunities for young women in particular, and to invest in infrastructure that can improve young women and men’s working conditions.
• Strengthen the enablers (ecosystem) to foster private sector engagement, stakeholder coordination synergy, and policy development for sustainable and scalable job growth.

Job Description and Key Responsibilities:

• Organize, update, and analyze agro-processing and food small and medium manufacturing enterprise data
• Facilitating PETCO Ethiopia and EED work to host events that generate interest in investing in local Agro-processing and food small and medium manufacturing industries.
• Facilitating industrial extension program in EED’s and selected technical and vocational institutions to increase the production capacity and competitiveness.
• Coordinating and facilitating trainings that build the capacity of the federal, city administration and other relevant government subsidiaries to create a national and international market opportunity for agro processing products, and to create market opportunities for the national and international market in exhibitions and bazaars.
• Document best practices in Agro-processing and food small and medium manufacturing industry and engage in overseas product promotion options.
• Provide technical skills training in Ethiopian enterprise development and selected technical and vocational institutions and ensure sector job creation effectiveness.
• Ensuring and expanding the development of new product samples in agro processing in coordination with stakeholders.
• Facilitating PETCO Ethiopia and EED work to host events that generate interest in investing in local agro-processing small and medium manufacturing sectors.
• By regularly updating the information of existing enterprises and based on the favorable conditions, identifying alternative fields of work in agro-processing manufacturing sectors and preparing documents for them.
• Develops, evaluates, and validates design, process, packaging, and food laboratory standards for specific agro-processing products.
• Activities
• Prepare a project profile, business plan, and machine specification to enhance young citizens’ engagement in the agro-processing sector
• Prepare short-term plans to create job opportunities in specific agro-processing and food sectors.
• Collaborates with stakeholders to conduct feasibility studies as a starting point for engaging in agro-processing; It makes them accessible to users.
• Monitor and ensure that established and newly established enterprises receive gap-based support.
• Creating job opportunities by facilitating coordinating support for nonfunctional agro-processing small and medium manufacturing industries.
• Provides monitoring support to develop a strategy with key stakeholders to provide effective industrial extension services to enterprises engaged in agro-processing.
• Monitors the creation of employment opportunities for existing enterprises by coordinating the provision of effective extension services.
• Leads and coordinates the planning of strategies for enterprises to connect each other and with large manufacturing industries through marketing and technology; and monitoring their performance.
• Coordinates the transfer of local and foreign enterprise experiences in the field of agro processing to enterprises; evaluates the applicability of experience and give feedback.
• In the field of agro processing and food, coordinates the needs of skill training needs of executive bodies, enterprises and citizens who want to engage in the sector.
• Prepares technical skills training manual and evaluates and verifies in agro processing and food industries.
• Ensures trainees receive technical training based on the skills gap provided and their competency is confirmed through COC, supervises, monitors and evaluates their performance.
• Monitors, evaluates, and gives feedback on the results of the training provided; Makes improvements.
• On the basis of feasibility, identifying and verifies agro-processing products that can replace imported products and can be offered to the foreign market.
• Based on market information, it will identify detailed information of enterprises that have the capacity to produce strategic agro-processing products and substitute products that can be offered to the foreign market.
• Provide monitoring and support to identify non-standardized agro-processing products and upgrade them; Coordinates awareness for enterprises on standardized products.
• Coordinates for enterprises to get technical support so that they can produce according to national and international standards; coordination with the relevant parties to obtain certification.
• In the field of agro processing, it coordinates the transfer of knowledge and technology between small and medium-sized enterprises that produce low-cost products, medium-sized and high-level industries, and foreign manufacturing industries; Monitors, evaluate and give feedback about the results.

  Category: Program Department

  Report to: Senior Program Director

  Salary: Competitive salary and a range of additional benefits

  Employment Term: Annual contract, renewable based on available fund