International consultant on life skills, Education Section (home-based), Beijing, China

Contract

This is a Consultancy contract. More about Consultancy contracts.

UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential.

Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone.

And we never give up.

For every child, Education

UNICEF is working with the Chinese Ministry of Education to support the integration of adolescent life skills (also known as transferable skills, 21st century skills) into its Technical and Vocational Education (TVET) in order to better prepare the students for school to work transition. This includes work to develop a China specific and age-appropriate life skills framework, assessment strategy and tools, and complementary learning resources to enable the integration of life skills into school and TVET curriculum.

How can you make a difference?

UNICEF China Education team is now seeking to engage an international consultant to provide technical input, expert review, international perspective and quality assurance to support

1. Development of China specific adolescent life skills framework, including assessment strategy
2. Development of a learning strategy to integrate life skills into school and TVET curriculum, building on best international practice and evidence.

The scope of work will mainly cover two major assignments:

Assignment one mainly involves providing technical input and expert reviews of the draft life skills framework, advise on the design and process of framework development based on strong international evidence and best practice, and comparative analysis to align the framework against internationally studied/evaluated standards;

Assignment two mainly involves providing technical input to development of learning strategy, including international mapping of good practice and evidence, advise on options of roadmaps to integrate life skills into school and TVET system, develop guidance on corresponding pedagogical approach and quality assurance mechanism.

For details, please refer to the TOR for International consultant on life skills.pdf

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…

• An advanced university degree (Master’s or higher) in Education, psychology, social research, social science and/or other relevant disciplines, specialized skills development will be a plus;
• Minimum ten years of experience in education related field, preferably in the TVET sector;
• Hands-on experience on developing competency frameworks, competency-based education assessment, life/transferable skills teaching or TVET curriculum development;
• Proven experience of international consultancy experience working with overseas countries and/or international organizations
• Excellent writing and speaking skills in English;
• A good team player, able to work with deadlines;
• Understanding of China education context, particularly the TVET sector;

The following are considered strong(admirable) assets:

• Previous technical roles with established national and international education framework and assessment projects (i.e. PISA etc.) is an asset;
• Previous international consultancy experiences with UN agencies and/or China related projects;
• Chinese language skills;

To view our competency framework, please visit here.

UNICEF is here to serve the world’s most disadvantaged children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, or any other personal characteristic.

UNICEF offers reasonable accommodation for consultants/individual contractors with disabilities. This may include, for example, accessible software, travel assistance for missions or personal attendants. We encourage you to disclose your disability during your application in case you need reasonable accommodation during the selection process and afterwards in your assignment.

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.

Remarks:

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

Individuals engaged under a consultancy or individual contract will not be considered “staff members” under the Staff Regulations and Rules of the United Nations and UNICEF’s policies and procedures, and will not be entitled to benefits provided therein (such as leave entitlements and medical insurance coverage). Their conditions of service will be governed by their contract and the General Conditions of Contracts for the Services of Consultants and Individual Contractors. Consultants and individual contractors are responsible for determining their tax liabilities and for the payment of any taxes and/or duties, in accordance with local or other applicable laws.

The selected candidate is solely responsible to ensure that the visa (applicable) and health insurance required to perform the duties of the contract are valid for the entire period of the contract. Selected candidates are subject to confirmation of fully-vaccinated status against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) with a World Health Organization (WHO)-endorsed vaccine, which must be met prior to taking up the assignment. It does not apply to consultants who will work remotely and are not expected to work on or visit UNICEF premises, programme delivery locations or directly interact with communities UNICEF works with, nor to travel to perform functions for UNICEF for the duration of their consultancy contracts.