Call for Applications for SME Development Office (SMEDO) Advisors

The FORBIZ project in Ukraine, financed by the European Union within the EU4Business initiative, invites qualified and experienced Ukrainian professionals to respond to this call for applications and become national experts of SMEDO to advise the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade on SME development and co-ordination issues.
Issue Date:  June 8, 2018
Closing Date:  June 22, 2018
Closing Time:  18-00 (Kyiv time)

1. Background
The aim of this Call is to invite all the interested candidates possessing adequate experience and knowledge in the required areas of competence. The selected candidates will become experts of the SMEDO - an advisory body within the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine (MEDT) that provides technical assistance to the Ministry and its Department for Entrepreneurship Development and Regulatory Policy in implementation of Ukraine’s SME Development Strategy 2020 and the associated SME Support Action Plan.
The SMEDO establishment is funded by the EU until March 2019 through the EU4Business project FORBIZ that supports the Ministry with conceptual contributions, staffing and coaching. During its initial phase, SMEDO will have 10 staff members in total, allocated to two units: (1) ‘SME and Entrepreneurship Promotion’ and (2) ‘SME Policy Implementation’.
 

2. Field of expertise
The SMEDO will focus on the following activities:
- SME support tools and mechanisms,
- SME support institutional infrastructure development,
- SME policy coordination and monitoring,
- SME Strategy and Action Plan implementation and monitoring,
- SME and entrepreneurship promotion,
- SME consulting and business services development, etc.

The present Call for Applications is open for the recruitment of 10 experts to fill the following positions:
1) Director SME Development Office 
2) Office Administrator
3) Head of SME Promotion Uni
4) Advisor Start-ups and Access to Finance 
5) Advisor International Cooperation 
6) Advisor Promotion and Access to Information 
7) Head of SME Policy Implementation Unit 
8) Advisor SME Support Infrastructure Development 
9) Advisor Business Services Development 
10) Advisor SME Policy Coordination and Monitoring 
 

3. Application procedure
We encourage you to apply for this Call if you:
- have a Master’s degree in a vacancy related field (public administration, business management, economics, international relations, etc) and equivalent professional experience;
- have at least 5 years of professional experience and can demonstrate practical expertise and knowledge in one or more areas related to the SMEDO activity, such as SME support tools and mechanisms, SME support institutional infrastructure development, SME policy coordination and monitoring, SME Strategy and Action Plan implementation and monitoring, SME and entrepreneurship promotion, SME consulting and business services development, etc;
- are fluent in English and Ukrainian.
How to apply?
Interested individuals are invited to submit their applications in English electronically by 18:00, June 22, 2018 (date of receipt) to the following e-mail address: prsm@fsr.org.ua indicating in the subject line the name of the positionthey are applying for.
An application will be deemed admissible only if it is sent by the deadline and includes the documents referred to below.
Each application shall include the following documents:
- a cover letter explaining the applicant's motivation for answering this Call and stating what contribution the applicant could make to the SMEDO team;
- a curriculum vitae (CV), preferably not exceeding three pages, submitted in the European format.
Additional supporting documents may be requested at a later stage.
 

4. Selection criteria 
The following criteria will be taken into account when assessing applications:
- the applicant constitutes a natural person of Ukrainian nationality, not a legal entity;
- proven and relevant competence and experience, including local or international level in the area of small business, including good understanding of SME finance, communication, promotion and development;
- strong coordination, analytical and drafting skills, ability to adapt to emerging and/or changing policy environments;
- absence of circumstances that could give rise to a conflict of interest;
- good knowledge of the English language allowing active participation in the discussions.

5. Selection procedure
The selection of experts is performed following professional and transparent standards. An evaluation committee established by FORBIZ evaluates all applications against the required profile and performs interviews with pre-selected candidates under the supervision of the Delegation of the EU to Ukraine.

Please note that due to the volume of applications we receive, we are unable to respond to each application individually. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted for interview.

Active before: 
2018-06-22