Programme Officer (Skill Development & Livelihoods) – HCL Foundation

Last date of submission of completed application is 8th October, 2021

HCL Foundation (HCLF) was established in 2011 as the CSR arm of HCL Technologies. It is a not for-profit- organization, that strives to contribute towards national and international development goals, bringing about lasting positive impact in the lives of people, through long term sustainable programmes. The foundation aims to alleviate poverty and achieve inclusive growth and development. Active community engagement ensures optimal long-term gains and upward accountability. HCL Foundation works through Life Cycle Based, Integrated Community Development Approach with thematic focus on Education, Health, Skill Development & Livelihood, Environment and Disaster Risk Reduction & Response. Child protective strategies, inclusion and gender transformative approaches remain central in all initiatives of HCL Foundation, thus ensuring comprehensive development. 

Presently HCL Foundation is implementing four flagship programmes, namely HCL Samuday & HCL Grant – Rural Development programmes; HCL Uday & Clean Noida – Urban Development programmes and 3 special initiatives – Power of One, Sports for Change and HCL Foundation Academy. 

Vision

To be the source for sustainable socio-economic and environmental development.

Mission

Nurtures clean, green and healthy communities where everyone is empowered and equipped to reach their full potential in partnership with its employees, communities and stakeholders, while promoting volunteerism and establishing international standards of strategic planning, implementation and measuring impact. 

HCL Uday Programme 

HCL Foundation’s flagship urban community development programme – HCL UDAY, seeks to create ‘green, clean, healthy and empowered communities’. Aligned with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, it is developing an integrated solution to break the vicious cycle of urban poverty. 

Defining Uday’s approach is its intrinsic belief that urban poor aspire to a life of dignity and self- respect. With the right opportunities, every individual has the potential to take charge of their lives, dare to imagine a different future and work towards it. Echoed across all interventions under Uday, this belief sets the community on the path of resilience and success. Our strategies are carefully designed, such that, they speak both to their environment and to their ambitions. Uday’s unique ‘Convergence’ approach brings this philosophy to life. Uniting critical stakeholders– the state, non-profits and HCL volunteers in a rich partnership, it meets its responsibility to the community and supports them in realizing their dreams. HCL Employee engagement and participation is a key lever that spans across all programs. 

‘Uday’ defined by 3 C’s

Comprehensive: the intervention targets critical areas of a person’s well-being – health, education, sports, livelihoods and skilling, environment, disaster reduction and sports for change. Continuous: takes a life-cycle approach. Uday walks with the community through all stages – infancy, early childhood, adolescence, adulthood and old age. 

Collaborative: taking the approach of convergence, it brings communities, non-profits, local and district governments and HCL employees together, leveraging the strength of each stakeholder for the greater good.

The 3 C’s combine to create the source code of Uday

Uday works in the immediate neighbourhoods of HCL across 11 cities where HCL has a presence. Currently being implemented in partnership with like-minded organizations, HCL Uday is now poised to scale – both in terms of depth of the intervention as well as scale of its reach.

Skill Development and Livelihood – Earning with Dignity

India has the world’s largest youth population, with 354.4 million people aged between 15 and 29 years (India Labor Market Update, 2016, International Labor Organization – ILO). Despite economic growth and an increase in general education levels, youth unemployment is a growing challenge, especially among the urban educated youth. Many families migrating from the rural areas end up living in slum areas (low-income housing) and youth from these households lack access to the resources and opportunities to make a foray into formal sector employment.

The goal of “Skill Development & Livelihood” portfolio is to empower youth with employable skills so that they are able to break the cycle of poverty and live a life of dignity. The portfolio is categorized in the following four pillars – 

(i) Skill Development Centers or Yuvakendras help in reducing the gap between demand and supply of skilled manpower by providing training in skill development and skill upgradation. The Yuvakendras enhance the vocational skills of youth, by imparting placement-linked and market- oriented skill training with suitable wage/ self-employment opportunities. 

(ii) Women Empowerment – Marginalized sections have a strong desire and capability to break the cycle of poverty. Social mobilization, building institutions and providing alternative income generation opportunities are critical. Facilitation of knowledge, handholding, skill building, access to credit, access to forward and backward market linkages, awareness of rights and entitlements and access to livelihood services stimulate this upward mobility. 

(iii) Incubation of Social Enterprises/ Micro Entrepreneurs – Facilitating, handholding and nurturing young women and men. Undertaking capacity building, providing seed money and working closely to bring about long term sustainable solutions. 

(iv) Career Guidance and Counselling – Information deficit among school and college goers is common and is further magnified in Government institutional setup. This information asymmetry hinders them from effectively participating in the workforce. Providing career guidance and counselling to students of public schools will prove to be critical for their progress and development. 

(v) Strengthening Government Institutions – Strengthening of Government institutions working in the vocational space is the need of the hour. Focus will be on providing resources to existing Government Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs), Polytechnics and other Government Institutions which will revamp quality education and improve learning experience. 

In FY 2020-21, a total of 5,404 youths were successfully trained in 26 different courses in 46 Yuvakendras. Under Women Empowerment, a total of 412 Self Help Groups (SHGs) comprising of 6,179 women were established. 860 micro-entrepreneurs incubated and 8,952 school/ college students provided Career Counselling opportunities. Total reach comes out to be 21,395. 

VACANCY DETAILS

Position: PROGRAMME OFFICERS – SKILL DEVELOPMENT & LIVELIHOODS

Under the leadership of the Director, HCL Foundation, the assigned personnel will be responsible for planning, strategizing and monitoring of various projects related to Skill Development & Livelihood theme under HCL Foundation’s urban flagship Programme – ‘HCL Uday’ across locations. The incumbent will be responsible for coordinating and implementation of projects and provide technical inputs in developing, reviewing and adding value to the strategies. The incumbent will report to the respective Location Team Head and Deputy Manager, Skill Development & Livelihood. 

The position will be responsible for

1. Strategy: Structuring livelihood projects of HCL Foundation centred around job-orientated skill development, self employment and entrepreneurship in accordance with the established HCL Uday’s Livelihood Framework, and in alignment with National/ State Government policy guidelines and UN SDGs.
2. Identification of new, innovative and relevant trades and industries for the skilling programs across locations.
3. Grant Management: Ensuring effective execution of project activities by closely working with NGO partners both on programmatic as well as financial fronts.
4. Regular monitoring and field visit of project sites under Skill Development & Livelihood theme in select HCL Uday cities.
5. Setup clear mechanisms for beneficiary follow-up and documentation of the same.
6. Manage and plan effective use of resources in order to comply with the audit requirements.

7. Effective engagement of HCL employees across Skill Development & Livelihood projects through creative and engaging strategies (employee volunteering).
8. Networking with the concerned local and Government authorities and ensuring that the projects are in sync with the larger policy framework so as to leverage their support.
9. Maintaining database of NGOs across HCL Uday project areas and exploring synergies with relevant stakeholders (prospective NGO partners, State/ National Government departments/ agencies, Academic Institutions etc.).
10. Identifying and Coordinating with potential courses/ trainers, thematic experts, NGOs, academicians etc. as per the relevant needs of the social development space under HCLF Academy.
11. Maintaining a comprehensive knowledge database and repository of the courses, research papers, certifications, rankings etc. that could be relevant for the Online Academy platform.
12. Handling and coordinating Projects and Implementing Agencies virtually during COVID19 lockdown and flexible to work from home and from remote locations in completing the deliverables. Exceptionally open minded for teleworking.
13. Skilled in documentation and handling the partner organization for effective implementation through convergence mechanism and strategies impact based models with partners.

Attributes and experience

1. 2-4 years of experience in development sector and willingness to work in the field of Skill Development & Livelihood. Candidate having prior experience is desirable.
2. Management & organizational skills: well organized and able to coordinate a wide range of concurrent activities, prioritizing workload effectively to meet deadlines. Self-motivation to act independently and also to work collaboratively in a team.
3. Communication skills: ability to network well and collaborate/ liaise with other stakeholders including District Administration and other agencies. Flexibility and adaptability to respond to changing circumstances.
4. Computer Literacy: High proficiency in Microsoft Office (especially Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook). Familiarity in any Statistical Package is desirable.
5. Ability to comprehend large data-sets in relational databases.
6. Fluency in English and Hindi for Programme Officer stationed in Lucknow is highly desirable.

Qualifications and Skills

1. Master’s degree in Social Sciences/ Public Policy/ Management or related field. Master/ Post Graduation is highly desirable.
2. Excellent management and organizational skills along with strong quantitative skills.

3. Flexible, self-motivating, able to manage multiple tasks efficiently, and team player.
4. Ability to deal with unstructured and changing environments.
5. Excellent verbal and written communication skills.

Remuneration

Salary commensurate with experience.

Please send your application to gaurav.majumdar@hcl.com, himani.gautam@hcl.com and Ruchira.Sarkar@hcl.com in cc.