Skills development and Technical and vocational education and training fund – Call for proposals

This funding opportunity process is now closed. The deadline for submitting a proposal was March 6, 2025, 12 p.m. (noon) Eastern Time.

The skills development and technical and vocational education and training (TVET) fund call is a single-step application process requiring applicant organizations to submit a full proposal.

The total amount of funding available under this call is up to $49.5 million over 5 years. Global Affairs Canada (GAC) may fund one proposal, or none, up to the maximum funding available.

You must submit your application through the Partners@International portal before the deadline. If you are applying in consortium with other organizations that would co-sign the funding agreement with GAC, please ensure that each organization is registered in the Partners@International and has uploaded all required documents. Please see details under the “Organization eligibility” and “Partnerships and Consortiums” sections below.

Late submissions will not be accepted. To prevent technical difficulties from delaying your proposal submission, we strongly recommend that you submit your application at least 3 working days before the deadline of 12 p.m. (noon) Eastern Time on March 6, 2025. Please read all portal instructions carefully.

Objective

This call aims to select an organization to establish and manage a skills development and TVET fund. The fund will provide sub-grants to Canadian, international and local organizations to support skills development, including TVET, with the purpose of supporting better access to decent work.

Expected outcomes

Under this call, your proposed project must contribute to the achievement of the following ultimate outcome:

Improved employment, self-employment, and entrepreneurship outcomes for the hardest to reach young people, including young women and girls, youth living with disabilities and refugees and displaced population, to support sustainable and inclusive economic growth, including in crisis, and conflict-affected settings.

Your proposed project must also contribute to all the following intermediate outcomes:

Improved employability skills and increased access to employment, self-employment, and entrepreneurship opportunities of skills development /TVET trainees.

Increased provision of quality and demand-driven skills development/TVET for youth, including green, blue and digital economy skills.^{Footnote 1}
Increased partnerships including financial support for the fund from other donors and partners.

Refer to the Results-Based Management How-To Guide for further information on GAC’s approach to Results-Based Management.

It is expected that the project will contribute to some of the following Feminist International Assistance Policy (FIAP) key performance indicators, including at least one economic indicator and at least one education indicator:

Total number of people trained (f/m) on demand-driven, technical and vocational education and training;
Total number of learners (f/m) receiving basic literacy, numeracy, and/or life skills development or training in an inclusive formal or non-formal (including community-based education) learning environment; and/or
Total number of people reached by projects that support women’s economic empowerment.

Project parameters

Carefully review the following parameters of this call and judge whether your project idea will fit. We will not respond to questions about the eligibility of your project idea. You must be able to answer “yes” to all the following statements for your application to be considered for funding under this call:

Value: The total value of your proposed project is up to a maximum $49.5 million;
Duration: Your proposed project will last five years;
Geographic scope: Sub-grants to be managed by the fund manager will be implemented in Official Development Assistance-eligible countries with a primary focus on sub-Saharan Africa, including in crisis and conflict-affected settings;
Canada’s Feminist International Assistance Policy: Your proposed project is aligned with Canada’s Feminist International Assistance Policy;
Language: Documents in your application package are complete and presented in either English or French;
Not-for-profit project: Your proposed project would not generate a profit for your organization or any other implementing organization;
Cost-sharing: The (co)signatory organization(s) will provide at least 5% of the total eligible direct project costs over the life of the project in cash and/or in-kind in accordance with GAC’s Policy on Cost-Sharing for Grant and Non-Repayable Contribution Agreements; and
Environmental Sustainability: Your project fulsomely considers and integrates environmental sustainability and climate resilience.

Projects supported by the fund shall:

Support the achievement of the defined ultimate and intermediate results framework (see above);
Target the hardest-to-reach young people, including young women and girls, youth living with disabilities, marginalized youth, refugees and displaced populations;
Target emerging sectors with growing work opportunities for youth such as the blue, green and digital economies, as per the above definitions;
Ensure, in partnership with employers including local businesses and private sector organizations, that:

technical, vocational and transferable skills training, as well as curriculum development, are responsive to local and national labour markets;
programming includes the provision of work-readiness opportunities, such as career counselling, job placements, internships and apprenticeships, mentorships, business development services, financial inclusion, etc.;

Support an enabling environment through collaboration with local and/or national governments to identify and address systemic barriers that prevent access to training and decent work opportunities for youth; and
Ensure gender equality and women’s and girls’ empowerment are integrated where possible.

Transferable skills include a range of skills and competencies often called soft skills, life skills, employability skills and socio-emotional skills.

Note that the manager/s of the fund will not be eligible to receive funding from the fund to implement projects.

The selected organization/consortium designated as the fund manager will be required to support the objectives of the fund by including, but not limited to:   

Developing and managing a fund in line with expected outcomes (see above);
Ensuring fulfillment of GAC’s fiduciary and programming requirements, including a Results Framework (Logic Model, Theory of Change, Performance Management Framework) as well as key risks analysis and associated risk mitigation measures;
Developing a leveraging component that can mobilize additional financial and in-kind support from and in partnership with diverse partners (e.g. other bilateral donors, philanthropic organizations, the private sector, etc.);
Ensuring the focus themes/sectors/target groups are needs-based and relevant to local markets, government priorities, and that the fund’s sub-grants complement existing youth employment and skills development/TVET programming;
Enhancing the evidence/knowledge base to support effective skills development/TVET leading to decent work for marginalized youth;
Managing and reporting on sub-grants to Canadian, international and local organizations, as per GAC’s requirements; and
Conceptualization and oversight of the fund’s governance structure, including roles and responsibilities.

Your proposed project will be considered for funding under this call if it conforms to all the above parameters.

Organization eligibility

Applicants should review the eligibility screening requirements to ensure that they are eligible for funding under this call. GAC will not pre-assess or comment on the eligibility of specific potential applicants. To be eligible, you must meet each of the following eligibility screening requirements and, where stipulated, provide supporting documentation. If your organization is submitting a proposal on behalf of a group of organizations that would sign the funding agreement with GAC, each organization (i.e. co-signatory) must meet all of the following requirements and provide documentation:

Your organization is a Canadian organization, which means for the purpose of this call that your organization is legally incorporated in Canada, established with an office and employees in Canada and can provide proof of legal status (e.g. a letter of incorporation) along with a Canada Revenue Agency business number;

If your organization is an Indigenous organization in Canada, it must provide supporting documentation on its history, governance and/or ownership structure.

You must provide separate financial statements for your organization’s 2 most recent fiscal years. Audited statements are preferred. If these are not available, statements must be signed by a member of the board of directors of each signatory, by the board’s delegate or by the owner(s). Note: since financial statements usually provide comparative information from the previous year, these statements will be used to do a 3-year trend analysis;
Your organization is registered in the Partners@International portal; and
You must provide an Organization Attestation (PDF, 102 KB, 4 pages) signed by the organization’s chief financial officer or a duly authorized board member.

If you are unable to respond to any of the above requirements, your organization is not eligible to apply under this call.

Required project experience

You must be able to demonstrate in your application that your organization/consortium has the required capacity to be considered for funding under this call. The signatory organization(s) must provide 1 or more examples of recent projects (at least 3 years within the last 10 years) in each of the following:

Managing effectively a grant-making fund (i.e. establishing governance structure, operational/financial policies, grant-making activities (conducting calls), technical and capacity development support to grantees, including small and medium size local organizations, demonstrate administrative and financial management capacity);
Planning and implementing effective skills development/TVET programming in Official Development Assistance-eligible countries, with a primary focus in sub-Saharan Africa, that demonstrated significant results;
Implementing gender transformative skills development/TVET, education and/or youth employment/entrepreneurship programming internationally; and
Establishing partnerships with the private and/or philanthropic sector to achieve progress towards the FIAP.

Please demonstrate how you meet these required project experiences under section “7-Organization ability relevant to the initiative” of the application form.

Applicants unable to fulfill the above requirements are not eligible to apply under this call.

Partnerships and Consortiums

In arrangements where only the applicant or lead applicant (one organization) will sign the funding agreement with GAC (should one be offered), the legal entity which is the applicant/lead applicant must meet all eligibility requirements by themselves and provide required documents and demonstrate organization experience applicable to only themselves.

In cases where applicants are applying in a consortium wherein both or all members of the consortium will be signatories to the funding agreement with GAC (should funding be offered), each member of the consortium must meet all of the organization eligibility requirements independently although the experience provided in section 7 of the proposal may be supplied by any signatory. Financial statements from the last two years must be submitted by each signatory. Each signatory must also submit a completed and signed Organization Attestation (PDF, 102 KB, 4 pages). Each signatory is jointly and severally responsible for meeting the obligations of the funding agreement with GAC (should one be offered).

In either case, non-signatory partners are not required to meet the eligibility requirements of this call.

Please note that your organization may only apply to this call once as an applicant/signatory. If more than one application is received identifying the same organization as a signatory, only the first submitted (as identified by the date/timestamp in the Partners@International portal) will be assessed in this process.

Available resources

There are several resources available online to help you develop your application package. We strongly encourage you to read all the following tools and guidance before beginning your application process.

How to submit your application package

In order to be considered under this call, you must submit your complete application package to Partners@International before 12 p.m. (noon) Eastern Time on March 6, 2025. Your application will not be considered for funding if you fail to meet the mandatory requirements, minimum standards and deadlines detailed herein.

Important: If you intend to apply to this call, you must email correspondance.pid@international.gc.ca by 12 p.m. (noon) Eastern Time on February 19, 2025 to request the budget template for this call.

Your application package must include all the following documents:

Completed application form (PDF, 360 KB, 16 pages), with validated label showing on first page;
Completed detailed budget;
Separate financial statements for the two most recent fiscal years from each signatory. See “Organization eligibility” section above for more information;
Completed and signed Organization Attestation (PDF, 102 KB, 4 pages) form (separate forms for each organization that would sign the funding agreement with GAC, if applicable);
Completed and signed Declarations and Guarantees Form (PDF, 250 KB, 1 page); and
Letter of Incorporation or proof of legal status.

As explained in How to apply for funding through a call, submitting a proposal through a call does not guarantee funding. Funding decisions will be made on the merit assessment of your application.

Accessing and using PDF forms

Use only Adobe Reader/Adobe Acrobat and Internet Explorer to work on the standardized PDFs to be submitted with your application package. If you use other software, the data you enter may not appear once submitted to the department, and the application will be considered ineligible.

If you are having difficulty downloading the proposal form, see GAC’s Help web page for guidance. Once downloaded, open the form directly in Adobe Reader only. Other software installed on your computer may try (and fail) to open the form using your default settings.

Questions on using the Partners@International portal

Please read and follow all the instructions for using the Partners@International portal (linked on the right-side menu). Do not open multiple windows within the portal as this may cause technical problems.

Do not try to register in the portal or upload documents at the last minute as this may have an impact on your ability to meet the deadline for submitting a proposal.

It may take up to 10 business days to register your organization. If you encounter technical difficulties while registering or trying to submit a proposal, send an email to partners-partenaires@international.gc.ca. Please note: During the last 2 weeks before a Call closes, the service standard for replying to your enquiry is 3 business days. Technical support for the portal is only available between 9 am and 4 pm ET, Monday to Friday.

Questions specific to this call

If you still have questions about this call after reading the general Questions and answers about applying for funding page, please send them to correspondance.pid@international.gc.ca by 12 p.m. (noon) Eastern Time on February 19, 2025. We will not respond to questions received after this deadline, or questions on specific organizational circumstances or specific project proposals. Applicants who submit questions will not receive emails with responses to their questions. Instead, answers only appear on the Questions and answers page specific to this call to ensure that all applicants have access to the same information at the same time.

Please note that the deadline to request the budget template is extended until March 6, 2025.

Date modified:: 2025-03-06

Language selection

Search