COEGA DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION (CDC)

UNIT HEAD: TECHNICAL SKILLS DEVELOPMENT CENTRE - CORPORATE SERVICES: SDC

LOCATION: Gqeberha

EMPLOYMENT TYPE: PERMANENT

GRADE: D2

ACCOUNTABILITY

The role demands a strong balance between innovation and operational excellence, and the incumbent will be tasked with diversifying training offerings, actively securing external grants and driving revenue generation and programme impact. By leveraging the CDC's market positioning, the incumbent will expand the scope of the SDC to support and integrate with broader strategic imperatives, including SMME development and the Coega Development Foundation (CDF), while ensuring the highest quality of skills provision and continuous growth.

MANDATE

The Unit Head: Skills Development Centre (SDC) is mandated to provide operational management and strategic input for the SDC. Aligning with the CDC’s strategic intent, national education frameworks, and corporate objectives, the incumbent is responsible for ensuring that the SDC operates as a sustainable, growth-oriented programme.

DESCRIPTION

KEY PERFORMANCE AREAS

Strategic Input & Business Growth

• Provide strategic input and direction to support SDC sustainability, capacity utilisation, and business growth.
• Design and diversify training programmes to align with the CDC mandate, corporate B-BBEE objectives, and the South African Human Resources Development Strategy.
• Leverage the CDC’s strategic positioning and networks to attract new business, clients, and revenue streams to the SDC.
• Identify, prepare proposals for, and secure external grants and funding to support training initiatives.
• Expand the operational scope of the SDC to integrate with strategic CDC areas, specifically the Coega Development Foundation (CDF) and SMME development.
• Research global and local training trends to benchmark operations, innovate the SDC’s offerings, and maintain competitiveness.

Stakeholder Management & Partnerships

• Build and maintain relationships with local businesses, private entities, and public sector partners to attract business and co-develop customised training programmes.
• Implement stakeholder management strategies to grow and retain training programmes, supporting revenue generation and socio-economic impact.
• Develop alliances with leadership from other training establishments to share knowledge and partner on developmental initiatives.
• Participate in industry formations and collaborations to provide the CDC perspective and influence decisions within the national training fraternity.
• Engage management within key client establishments to ensure training solutions meet market demands.

Operational Management & Quality Assurance

• Extend and maintain the SDC's accreditations with applicable ETQA bodies, ensuring compliance and quality provision.
• Evaluate and manage training performance metrics, implementing remedial action to support achievement against targets.
• Oversee the upkeep of training facilities and equipment.
• Develop, implement, and enhance training policies, standard operating procedures, and risk management strategies.
• Establish and maintain systems for collecting, analysing, and interpreting performance data to support operational improvement.
• Manage the evaluation and review of learning materials, ensuring a learner-centred approach that maintains discipline and satisfaction rates.
• Ensure health and safety (SHEQ) compliance and manage procurement processes across the SDC.

People Management & Organisational Culture

• Provide leadership, mentoring, and coaching to SDC staff to increase operational effectiveness, accountability, and quality output.
• Design and implement performance frameworks and talent development initiatives within the SDC.
• Build consensus and foster a collaborative team environment that supports adaptability and knowledge management.

COMPETENCIES AND REQUIREMENTS

Educational Qualifications

Essential/ Minimum

• A Degree (NQF 7) in Human Resources, Social Sciences, Education, any related technical qualification or equivalent qualifications.

Preferred/ Advantageous

• Further tertiary education in Business Management, preferably an MBA or equivalent.

Experience

Essential/ Minimum

• 10 years’ experience in facilitating training and development.
• 8 years’ experience managing relevant projects, programmes or a private business.

Preferred/ Advantageous

• None specified.

Competencies

Essential

• Innovative thinker with business acumen and the ability to balance strategic input with operational execution.
• Results-oriented with a focus on quality provision and business profitability.
• Thorough understanding of the South African training and development landscape, associated legislation, and the national HR Development Strategy.
• Ability to leverage networks, build consensus, and drive strategic alignment across diverse stakeholder groups.
• Strong analytical, planning and problem-solving capabilities.
• Mature, credible, and comfortable dealing with senior management, with excellent oral and written communication skills (fluent in English).

Preferred/ Advantageous

• None specified.

Licences, Registrations & Certifications

Essential

• None specified.

Preferred/ Advantageous

• A professional certification or ETQA registration (e.g. registered moderator/assessor).

PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT

Performance is monitored regularly at both an individual and a team level, in accordance with the CDC’s performance management system and control measures relevant to the position.

COMPLIANCE AND ETHICS

The incumbent is required to:

• Uphold the CDC’s Code of Conduct and Ethics Policy, demonstrating ethical behaviour and contributing to good corporate governance.
• Actively participate in and adhere to the CDC’s Quality, Safety, Health, Environmental, Information Security and IT Service Management System (SHEMS) policies and procedures. This includes a responsibility for identifying and reporting potential risks and incidents related to safety, security, and quality, and for contributing to the ongoing improvement of the CDC's SHEMS.
• Be familiar with and adhere to the CDC emergency preparedness plans.
• Maintain confidentiality regarding CDC trade secrets and Information Security policies.
• Obtain prior written permission for any business or pursuit outside of the CDC that may conflict with the CDC’s interests, including immediate family members working for a direct competitor, adhering to the CDC’s Conflict of Interest Policy.

This job description outlines the primary responsibilities and key performance areas of the role. It is not intended to be an exhaustive list of all duties and tasks.

Closing date: 14 September 2026

CDC is an equal opportunity employer and placement will be in accordance with our Employment Equity Plan. 

The appointment of candidates is subject to the verification of all credentials (employment history, educational, financial, criminal and any other checks as may be necessary). Please note that only shortlisted candidates will be contacted, and if you have not heard from us within two (2) months of submitting your application, please consider it unsuccessful.

CDC reserves the right not to make an appointment to any advertised position. No late applications will be considered.

All applications must be forwarded to recruitment@coega.co.za.

CDF FUND MANAGER - CORPORATE SERVICES: COEGA DEVELOPMENT FOUNDATION

LOCATION: Gqeberha

EMPLOYMENT TYPE: PERMANENT

GRADE: D2

ACCOUNTABILITY

The Fund Manager serves as the strategic lead for the Coega Development Foundation’s (CDF) Social Investment Funds conduit, taking responsibility for the strategic governance, financial sustainability, compliance and allocation of socio-economic development funds. Acting as a bridge between donors and impactful community initiatives, the incumbent pools Social Investment Funds from individuals and corporates, channelling them toward needs-driven holistic education programmes and interventions, early childhood development infrastructure, and skills development solutions.

Rather than directly executing these training programmes, this role attracts and directs funding and Corporate Social Investment (CSI) strategies, manages donor relationships, ring-fences funds according to funder interests, and measures social impact. The Fund Manager ensures that all supported initiatives prepare participants for lifelong learning, employability, and entrepreneurship, aligning with the CDF’s core values (including integrity, transparency, inclusivity and transformation), regulatory requirements, the broader mandate of the Coega SEZ, and national B-BBEE socio-economic development frameworks.

MANDATE

Operating within an early establishment phase, the Fund Manager strategically collaborates with internal Coega Development Corporation (CDC) Business Units – such as the Skills Development Centre – co-identifying impactful opportunities and integrating the Foundation's socio-economic development funds with the CDC's broader industrial and developmental mandate. The incumbent reports operationally to the Executive Manager: Corporate Services of the CDC, and strategically to the Board of Directors of the Foundation itself.

DESCRIPTION

KEY PERFORMANCE AREAS

Foundation Institutionalisation and Strategy Formulation

• Establish and maintain governance systems, processes, and controls for the Coega Development Foundation (CDF), ensuring alignment with the CDF’s core values of accountability, transparency, inclusivity and service provision excellence.
• Ensure compliance with funder requirements and regulatory frameworks governing non-profit entities and Special Economic Zones.
• Report to the Board and stakeholders in line with governance requirements and statutory public sector obligations.
• Facilitate coordination of CDF meetings and engagements to drive the institution’s agenda.
• Translate the CDC’s developmental mandate into specific, operational, socio-economic development (SED) funding policies.
• Formulate long-term sustainability models to transition the Foundation from an early-stage set-up into a self-sustaining funding vehicle.
• Benchmark the Foundation’s governance frameworks against national and international CSI best practices.
• Develop the constitutional documents, operational charters, and operating frameworks for Board approval.
• Define clear risk management strategies to safeguard the Foundation against fiduciary, reputational, and operational liabilities.

Internal CDC Business Unit Integration and Co-Identification

• Collaborate with CDC Business Units to ensure alignment and integration across all community-facing programs without duplicating operational delivery.
• Partner with the internal CDC Skills Development Centre to channel external funding towards existing accredited training programmes, short courses, and the Coega Maths and Science Programme.
• Partner with the CDC MSME Development Unit to link CDF funds with localised supply chain incubators.
• Engage the CDC Business Development and Commercial sections to integrate donor pitches into the primary tenant onboarding pipeline.
• Coordinate with the CDC units working in project development areas to identify early childhood development and broader infrastructure funding gaps in surrounding communities.
• Establish internal joint working committees to prevent duplicate functions between the Foundation and core CDC departments.
• Align the project selection criteria of the Foundation with the commercial and macro-investment targets of the broader SEZ.
• Review existing CDC corporate initiatives to determine where external grant funding can accelerate socio-economic delivery.
• Embed the Foundation’s strategic goals within the broader integrated reporting frameworks of the CDC.

Fund Development and Capital Mobilisation

• Maintain strong relationships with stakeholders across sectors to identify capital-raising and co-investment opportunities, pooling social investment funds from both individuals and corporates.
• Spearhead capital-raising campaigns targeting corporate social investment budgets of SEZ industrial tenants.
• Design innovative financial mechanisms, including matching-grant and pooled-fund structures, to attract corporate donors.
• Package attractive value propositions that demonstrate the B-BBEE scorecard and tax exemption benefits available to investors.
• Diversify the revenue streams of the Foundation to reduce long-term dependency on a single donor pool or corporate grant.
• Convene donor networking events and investor roundtables to position the Foundation as the preferred regional development partner.
• Negotiate high-value seed funding and sponsorship agreements with prospective multinational manufacturing investors.
• Monitor global and local corporate philanthropic trends to adapt capital mobilisation strategies proactively.

Fund Management and Financial Governance

• Establish and maintain governance systems, processes, and controls specifically for multi-donor fund accounting.
• Ring-fence received funds strictly according to specific funder interests, mandates, and compliance requirements during all capital distributions.
• Evaluate and select beneficiaries through proactive identification or unsolicited requests, utilising stringent criteria that are highly sensitive to the plight of disadvantaged and vulnerable groups.
• Manage the overarching budget of the Foundation, ensuring optimisation of funds and prevention of unauthorised or wasteful expenditure.
• Enforce strict financial internal controls regarding the validation, authorisation, and disbursement of community grants.
• Secure legally binding grant agreements with all selected community partners, outlining strict delivery milestones.
• Oversee the annual external financial audit process of the Foundation to guarantee uncompromised transactional transparency.
• Formulate cash flow forecasts, financial variance analyses, and capital deployment schedules for executive review.
• Structure claw-back mechanisms within funding contracts to protect disbursed resources against non-delivery.
• Approve short-term investment strategies for idle reserve capital to optimise interest generation within risk tolerances.

Monitoring, Evaluation and Social Impact Tracking

• Measure social impact to align with corporate values, national legislation, and donor-specific performance metrics, specifically tracking improvements in lifelong learning, employability, and entrepreneurship.
• Deploy monitoring and evaluation systems to track the real-time execution of funded projects.
• Formulate quantitative and qualitative key performance indicators for each community upskilling and development project.
• Calculate the Social Return on Investment across the portfolio of supported initiatives.
• Conduct site inspections and localised spot-checks to verify physical progress against submitted financial claims.
• Review underperforming projects to diagnose bottlenecks and implement rapid corrective action or funding suspensions.
• Publish data-driven performance dashboards comparing actual socio-economic outputs against baseline regional targets.
• Assess the long-term systemic impact of skills and MSME programs on local employment absorption rates.
• Refine project selection models based on historical monitoring and evaluation data to maximise future funding efficiency.

Funder and Stakeholder Reporting

• Report to the Board and stakeholders in line with governance requirements, donor expectations, and public sector standards.
• Manage the entire process of the application of funds and account directly and transparently to the funders.
• Author detailed, compliant impact reports customised to the exact reporting frameworks of specific international and corporate donors.
• Demonstrate to contributing tenants exactly how their funding allocations satisfy national B-BBEE socio-economic development compliance targets.
• Compile regular operational and financial updates for Executive Management.
• Produce a comprehensive CDF Annual Social Impact Report for public and shareholder distribution.
• Facilitate coordination of CDF meetings and engagements focused on feedback delivery and transparent financial reporting.
• Manage a secure donor reporting schedule, ensuring zero delays in compliance submissions.
• Present evidence of community project delivery to donor audit committees during annual reviews.
• Synthesise statistical impact data into accessible messaging for non-technical stakeholders.

Stakeholder Engagement and Social License to Operate

• Maintain strong relationships with stakeholders across sectors, including local government municipalities, traditional leaders, and civil society.
• Facilitate coordination of CDF meetings and engagements with community leadership structures to foster public trust.
• Communicate the mission, funding criteria, and success stories of the Foundation to the public and grassroots communities.
• Gather continuous community and stakeholder feedback to inform the co-identification of funding priorities with CDC business units.
• Safeguard the CDC’s social license to operate by ensuring geographic equity and fairness in the distribution of funds.
• Represent the Foundation at socio-economic development forums, government panels, and non-profit coalition summits.
• Promote the shared-value achievements of SEZ tenants to enhance the public image of the Coega corporate ecosystem.

COMPETENCIES AND REQUIREMENTS

Educational Qualifications

Essential

• Bachelor’s Degree (NQF Level 7) in Development Studies, Public Administration, Economics, Business Management, Finance, any related field or equivalent.

Preferred

• Postgraduate Degree, Honours, or Master’s Degree (NQF Level 8 or 9).

Experience

Essential

• 6 to 8 years of managerial experience working within corporate foundations, non-profit fund management, or economic development environments, featuring accountability for fund mobilisation, multi-million budget management, and board-level reporting.

Preferred

• Successful track record of setting up new programs, funds or organisational units during an establishment or incubation phase or institutionalising a new foundation or corporate trust, including drafting foundational policies. • Proven experience working within or alongside a Special Economic Zone (SEZ), Industrial Development Zone (IDZ), or a large-scale Public-Private Partnership (PPP), ideally with exposure to the Coega SEZ ecosystem. • Experience coordinating and collaborating with independent, pre-existing internal Business Units.

Competencies

Essential

• Deep understanding of non-profit corporate governance, localised grant-making regulations, and King V governance principles.
• Thorough knowledge of fundraising methodologies, capital mobilisation strategies, and donor compliance frameworks.
• Advanced financial acumen, budget structuring, grant management, and fiduciary risk assessment capabilities.
• Exceptional collaboration and internal stakeholder management skills, with a proven ability to work across a matrixed corporate structure.
• Strong monitoring and evaluation design, data analysis, and technical donor report-writing skills.
• High emotional intelligence, political astuteness, and the ability to comfortably interact with both high-level corporate donors and grassroots community structures.
• High levels of adaptability, initiative, and entrepreneurial drive required to build a new entity during an early establishment phase.

Preferred

• An existing network of potential strategic partners would be advantageous.
• Thorough understanding of the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA), national SEZ legislation, and national socio-economic development (SED) targets.
• Cross-sector collaboration capabilities with a proven ability to align corporate, governmental, and grassroots community agendas.

Licences, Registrations & Certifications

Essential

• Driver’s licence (as regular travel to localised project sites and stakeholder meetings is required).

Preferred

• Specialised certifications in Fund Development, Corporate Social Responsibility, Non-Profit Management, or Monitoring & Evaluation.
• Professional membership or registration with a recognised institute for corporate governance, fund management or social impact professionals.

PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT

Performance is monitored regularly at both an individual and a team level, in accordance with the CDC’s performance management system and control measures relevant to the position.

These may include, for example:

• Total capital raised (grant, concessional, and private sector impact investment) against the Board-approved target.
• Size and conversion rate of the funding pipeline, alongside the number and value of funding transactions successfully closed.
• Strength, depth, and diversity of strategic partnerships established to reduce single-donor dependency and foster internal collaboration with CDC business units.
• Quantitative and qualitative impact outcomes achieved (economic, social, environmental) against baseline regional targets.
• Effectiveness of governance, compliance and fund management systems, including the achievement of unqualified (clean) external financial audits.
• Accuracy in ring-fencing, deploying, and accounting for funds according to donor mandates and fiduciary regulations.
• On-time submission of mandatory financial and impact reports, and the measured level of satisfaction among donors, CDC counterparts, and community leadership structures.

COMPLIANCE AND ETHICS

The incumbent is required to:

• Uphold the CDC’s Code of Conduct and Ethics Policy, demonstrating ethical behaviour and contributing to good corporate governance.
• Actively participate in and adhere to the CDC’s Quality, Safety, Health, Environmental, Information Security and IT Service Management System (SHEMS) policies and procedures. This includes a responsibility for identifying and reporting potential risks and incidents related to safety, security, and quality, and for contributing to the ongoing improvement of the CDC's SHEMS.
• Be familiar with and adhere to the CDC emergency preparedness plans.
• Maintain confidentiality regarding CDC trade secrets and Information Security policies.
• Obtain prior written permission for any business or pursuit outside of the CDC that may conflict with the CDC’s interests, including immediate family members working for a direct competitor, adhering to the CDC’s Conflict of Interest Policy.

This job description outlines the primary responsibilities and key performance areas of the role. It is not intended to be an exhaustive list of all duties and tasks.

Closing date: 14 September 2026

CDC is an employment equity employer, and placement will be in accordance with our Employment Equity Plan. 

The appointment of candidates is subject to the verification of all credentials (employment history, educational, financial, criminal and any other checks as may be necessary). Please note that only shortlisted candidates will be contacted, and if you have not heard from us within two (2) months of submitting your application, please consider it unsuccessful.

CDC reserves the right not to make an appointment to any advertised position. No late applications will be considered.

All applications must be forwarded to recruitment@coega.co.za.