National Consultant (Mapping and Assessment of digital/online youth skilling to earning platforms in Bangladesh); Dhaka (Only for Bangladeshi)

Contract

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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.

How can you make a difference?

Background:

UNICEF Bangladesh is seeking an individual consultant, for its Generation Unlimited (GenU) Initiative, to carry out a youth, gender, and disability-sensitive mapping and assessment of existing digital /online adolescents and youth education and skilling to earning platforms in Bangladesh. The overall aim of the assignment is to provide evidence to the design and adaptation of Passport to Earning (P2E) in Bangladesh. P2E is an innovative online youth-focused learning management system (LMS) built on the Microsoft Community Training platform (MCT). As a flagship GenU global solution, P2E provides free, certified education and skilling to earning, through online and offline digitalized curricula and locally curated content. P2E is an extension of UNICEF and Microsoft’s Learning Passport, which was listed as one of Time Magazine’s Best Inventions of 2021.

GenU is a UNICEF-led global and local public, private, and youth partnerships initiative, active in Bangladesh since 2019. GenU’s mission is to foster and strengthen partnerships with various stakeholders and partners from the government, private sector, CSOs, and youth-led organizations. This is to help adapt and scale local and globally proven initiatives and/or initiate new and innovative approaches, to enhance skilling, empowerment, and employment opportunities for Bangladeshi youth, especially girls, young women, and young people with disabilities, not in education, employment or training.

Adolescents and youth in the 15-24 age group constitute almost 20 percent of the total population in Bangladesh[1]. An estimated 85-90 percent of youth lack the essential education, training, and skills, needed to match the needs of the current and future labor market, leading to high unemployment, underemployment, and economic inactivity among youth. While 64 percent of youth complete secondary or higher education, some 40 percent remain unemployed for a year or more and 43 percent are simply not in education, employment, or training, with the vast majority (87 percent) being young women.[2] In addition, 64 percent of young people with disabilities are neither in education nor employment and specifically, young women with disabilities face higher rates of economic and social exclusion, as compared to other youth in low-income contexts[3].

Despite a rapid increase in mobile phone and internet users, a digital divide exists in Bangladesh. 37.1 percent of the total population uses the internet, while 80.5 percent of the population in urban areas and 68.38 percent in rural areas are mobile phone users. In terms of the gender divide, 86.72 percent of men in Bangladesh and 58.83 percent of women are mobile phone users[4] A recent National Survey on Children’s Education in Bangladesh by BBS, SID and UNICEF evidenced that only 13.1%, in primary, 20.3% in lower-secondary and 23.7% in upper-secondary levels, primarily in urban settings, attended remote/distance learning at some point during the COVID lockdowns of the 2021 school year, [5] despite the availability of various online education and skilling offered by Government and private providers.

Thus while opportunities for online and blended learning and skilling are expanding, still a majority of young people especially adolescent girls and young women, less in rural areas than in urban areas, are not accessing and utilizing online and e-learning opportunities.

Purpose of Activity/Assignment:

GenU aims to design and adapt P2E in Bangladesh with the user in mind, to be fit for purpose and add value including as a connector to and for existing youth training and skilling to earning online and offline ecosystems. The primary users are youth aged 15 – 24, including those disconnected from education, training, and employment, adolescent girls, young women, and young people with disabilities. Besides the importance of inclusiveness, P2E also need to be linked to and recognized by employers, especially business in their search for skilled and certified job-ready youth.

The purpose of the assignment is therefore to map and take stock of existing e-learning and skilling to earn landscapes and platforms available to and used by youth in Bangladesh. The stocktaking should identify types of courses and content, the profiles of users reached and engaged, and whether and how the mapped platforms interface and/or relate to each other in an ecosystem, specifically in the context of P2E user-centric design for future implementation. For GenU to better understand the current online learning and skilling journey of youth as well as benefits for employers, the stock-taking need to include assessment and analysis of the user experience, including potential barriers related to access, both from P2E target youth and employer perspectives.

[1] 19.11 percent in 2022. (BBS 2022 preliminary report)

[2] UN Women, 2020

[3] UKaid funded Bangladesh Situational Analysis Version II - June 2020

[4] 2022 BBS preliminary survey data. Internet user is defined as any person aged five years or older who have used the internet at least once in the last three months.

[5] National Survey on Children’s Education in Bangladesh, Based on MICS approach, June 2022 UNICEF

Please download the brief TOR for Major Tasks/Assignments and Deliverables:

Consultant_TOR_GenU.docx

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

• Advanced degree in education, information technology, statistics, communication, social science, or other relevant fields. In lieu of a specific academic degree, relevant experience may be considered to meet the requirements.

  *A first University Degree in a relevant field combined with 2 additional years of professional experience may be accepted in lieu of an Advanced University Degree.

• At least eight years of demonstrated knowledge, expertise, and practical working experience in:

  • Technology for Development/Education and/or information system development and learning management systems (LMS)
  • Conducting similar assessments of e-learning, skilling, and employment management systems and/or related online platforms.
  • Working on assignments related to online and blended education, training, and skilling to earning for youth aged 15 – 24, especially adolescent girls and young women, youth with disabilities, and other marginalized youth disconnected from education, training, and employment.
  • Conducting key informant interviews with youth (users and potential users) and selected key informants within the business (employers/HR functions)
  • Excellent communication abilities in Bengali and English, in both written and oral forms.

  In addition, the following assets are desirable:

  • Knowledge of the latest global, and regional trends, transformations, and innovations in e-learning and skilling to earning
  • Experience in managing user-centric design processes in software development,
  • Experience in user requirement gathering, customization of software, and support

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF's values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability, and Sustainability (CRITAS).

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 including 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 a reasonable accommodation during the selection process and afterward 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 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, program 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.