National Individual Consultant to support coordination and implementation of COVID-19 Learning Passport Platform Initiative

 

 1. Background & Rationale

The Learning Passport, a partnership between UNICEF, Microsoft, Cambridge, and supported by the Boston Consulting Group, has been established to, 1) provide local, contextualized content with a supplementary library of global content, mapped together via research by Cambridge; 2) provide a platform to serve this content to children and youth online or offline, via a platform being developed by Microsoft, and 3) with an individualized record of learning for a user, that is portable across physical and digital borders.

The Learning passport, as an emergency response, will create country-level sites available on request, to UNICEF Country Offices (CO) that would like to make access to curriculum and learning materials available for students with connectivity at home. While the platform has primarily been used to date for older students (primary to adolescence), the platform will be adapted in Europe and Central Asia region to support preschool age children, their caregivers, and their teachers to ensure age appropriate and quality early learning.

The envisioned digital platform aims to enhance continued engagement with families and parents on learning at home by providing practical resources and materials that can be applied in home settings. Its second aim is to strengthen professional development opportunities and facilitate collaboration between preschool educators and other staff on sharing ideas, best practices and activities that can be implemented in kindergartens. Ultimately, the digital preschool platforms should support building and strengthening of a national community of practice between parents, teachers and children, with shared principles around early learning and development.

The envisioned digital platform aims to enhance continued engagement with families and parents on learning at home by providing practical resources and materials that can be applied in home settings. Its second aim is to strengthen professional development opportunities and facilitate collaboration between educators at preschool, primary and secondary education levels, and other staff on sharing ideas, best practices and activities that can be implemented in schools. Ultimately, the digital platform should support building and strengthening of a national community of practice between parents, teachers and children, with shared principles around quality teaching and learning and development. The online learning platform will have separate segments dedicated to non-formal education and teachers’ professional development.

In response to COVID-19 school closures, the Ministry of Education established a system of distance education through development of video lessons broadcast on television channels and by use of different online learning platforms. In March 2020, upon the initiative of UNICEF Montenegro, the Ministry of Education committed to support development of an online learning platform which will enable creation of a quality and inclusive system of digital education.

In short, while the key focus of this initiative is learning, quality and portability of education for children whose education has been disrupted by emergencies, including children from most vulnerable groups, such as (children with disabilities, Roma and Egyptian children, children on the move, etc., the medium and long-term goal is to help establish a quality system of online education, collaboration and support to children and parents.

  

2. Scope of work and objectives

Under the overall supervision of the UNICEF Education Officer, the national consultant is required to provide the following services:

1. Learning Passport Platform coordination and management

• Lead the deployment of Learning Passport Platform and serve as key focal point and liaison among all key actors, including the UNICEF Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia, UNICEF Headquarters in New York, as well as other country offices, and the Ministry of Education.
• Act as a National Team Lead consultant who will be responsible for coordination of the team work and timely submission of deliverables;
• Create and manage a Learning Passport Platform community among UNICEF staff, the Ministry of Education, central educational institutions and other relevant national partners engaged in deployment, producing knowledge management resources and organizing activities to ensure collaboration among members of the community and documenting lessons learned, challenges, and good practices.
• Serves as lead for programme design and user experience.
• Provide on-the-ground support to users (learners, teachers, parents) and stakeholders at key moments of engagement. 
• Scope complimentary ICT for learning and Edtech tools that could be integrated to support Learning Passport related technology efforts, in coordination with consultant in charge of providing IT support to platform deployment.
• Lead, coordinate and supervise the mapping of the digital curriculum available at the national level and international levels, and propose and supervise necessary adaptations, in cooperation with the national consultants responsible for content development
• Establish and maintain regular consultations with relevant national and international actors in relation to platform development and content development/curation
• Provide guidance from both short and long-term perspective to the process of Learning Passport platform deployment and content development for all education levels, professional teacher development and non-formal education.
• Provide inputs and support the drafting of reports to internal and external stakeholders and funders of the Learning Passport.
• Work with the Learning Passport national team, Ministry of Education, UNICEF and other relevant stakeholders to develop a dissemination strategy.
• Work with the Learning Passport national team on conducting a pilot of the platform, collecting user feedback and revising content for full launch, including development of a dissemination strategy, keeping in mind target groups, phasing, etc.
• Coordinate and supervise the work of the Learning Passport national team.

2. Support coordination with national and international stakeholders

• Maintains regular communication with UNICEF Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia, UNICEF Headquarters in New York, as well as other country offices
• Maintains regular communication with all relevant national counterparts, including civils society, academia and institutions.
• Shares best practices between Learning Passport participating countries and other countries in the region with similar efforts add support creation of communication brief, presentations, etc. 

 

Other activities needed to support the purpose of this contract.

 

3. Deliverables

 The consultant will deliver the following outputs and products within the timeline indicated.

 

Activity	Deliverables	Timeline
1.            Learning Passport Platform coordination and management	Learning Passport platform deployed Content developed/adapted for all education levels, non-formal education, and teacher training, including with focus on children from most vulnerable groups (children with disabilities, Roma and Egyptian children, children on the move, etc) Support provided to users (teachers, students, parents) at key moments of engagement Coordination and supervision of the Learning Passport team conducted Serve as key focal point and coordinator for LP and partners Lead the drafting of project documentation Document user feedback and requirements Serve as lead support in troubleshooting and user support for users and stakeholders at key moments of engagement Draft monitoring, financial and other regular reports Oversee and provide inputs to monitoring exercises for internal and external stakeholders and funders of the Learning Passport (grants’ reports, annual results report, needed updates, etc.). Support UNICEF Montenegro on other activities related to the Education and Technology agenda.	Throughout the engagement period
2.            Support coordination with national and international stakeholders	Regular communication maintained with ECARO, HQ, CO, as well as other COs Regular consultations and information sharing conducted with all relevant counterparts at the national level	Throughout the engagement period
3.            Other activities needed to support the purpose of this contract.	Logistics support provided for meetings/interviews/focus groups with actors and stakeholders Contribute and manage knowledge resources and support general knowledge sharing Monthly progress report and the final report; Other relevant support provided as per need	Throughout the engagement period

 

4. Management and Organization

 

Management: The Consultant will report directly to the UNICEF Montenegro Education Officer.

Organization: A national consultant will be required for this consultancy.

Schedule: The duration of consultancy should cover a minimum of 11.5 months, i.e. from 15 December 2020 until 1 December 2021. No travel is expected during this assignment.

 

5. Qualifications and Competencies

 Education:

• University degree in IT, education, educational technology, child development, social or natural sciences or another relevant field. 
• Advanced degree is considered as an asset.

Experience:

• At least five (5) years of professional work experience in IT development, education technology, formal and non-formal education, teacher training, e-learning and distance learning.

• At least two years of proven experience in project management/programme coordination, involving multiple stakeholders.
• Excellent knowledge of information management systems.

• Familiarity with digital learning design.
• Work with UN/UNICEF or other international organization would be considered as an asset;

Language:

• Excellent oral and written communications in English and Montenegrin language required. Consultant should be at ease in presentations and meetings with different high-level stakeholders and officials.

 

Other competencies:

• Demonstrated ability and experience in coordination and supervisions is required.
• Ability to work under pressure.
• Excellent communication abilities, in both written and oral forms.  Consultant should be at ease in presentations and meetings.
• Demonstrated ability to work in a multicultural environment and to establish harmonious and effective relationships both within and outside the organisation, more specifically with Ministry of Education and other education institutions.
• Knowledge of the situation of children and adolescents in the ECA region and Montenegro.

 

6. Office Arrangements and Travel Requirements

The consultancy is expected to be based at the Ministry of Education. However, in light of the COVID19 situation, it is likely that the national consultant will work pre-dominantly from home. The consultant is expected to use their own computer. Consultant will have access to the UNICEF e-mail account.

7. Budget and Remuneration

 

•             Consultancy fee

Financial proposals, including consultancy fee (monthly) are invited based on these Terms of Reference and should be submitted as a separate document.

•             Payment schedule

The payments will be made on monthly basis upon successful completion of the deliverables and submission of monthly progress report and signed invoices.

•             Recourse

UNICEF reserves the right to withhold all or a portion of payment if performance is unsatisfactory, if work/outputs is incomplete, not delivered or for failure to meet deadlines.

 

8. Application procedure:

 

Selection Method:

All applicants will be screened against qualifications and requirements set above. Candidates fully meeting all the requirements will be further evaluated based on the criteria below.

1.            Technical Criteria – Interview – 70 % of total evaluation– max. 70 points

•             Education: 20 points

•             Previous experience: 25 points

•             Technical questions at the interview: 25 point

•             Only candidates who obtained at least 70% of points from the technical part (who will score at least 49 points) will be qualified for considering for financial proposal evaluation.

2.            Financial Criteria – 30 % of total evaluation – max. 30 points.

•             Financial scores will be calculated using the formula [lowest offer / financial offer of the candidate x 30].

•             As part of the selection process, the office will select the individual who quoted the lowest fee from the list of individuals who are deemed suitable for achieving all tasks in time, and as per the criteria and deliverables stipulated in the Terms of Reference.

REMARK:

Mandatory learning: Upon concluding the recruitment process and prior to signing the contract, all Consultants and Individual Contractors, including those working from home, must complete the following three online courses:

•             Ethics and Integrity at UNICEF

•             Prevention of Sexual Harassment and Abuse of Authority

•             Sexual Exploitation Abuse (PSEA)

In addition, Consultants and Individual Contractors must complete the following course before commencement of any travel on behalf of UNICEF.

•             BSAFE security training 

Any consultant or individual contractor who is issued a UNICEF email address must complete the following courses no later than 30 days after signature of contract.

 UN Human Rights and Responsibilities; 

• UNICEF information security awareness course

 The courses can be found on the following link: UNICEF Mandatory Training/Learning Courses .

 

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce and encourages qualified female and male candidates from all national, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities to apply.

UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.

 

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.