Remote Internship with Education, UNICEF Turkey

Contract

This is a Internship contract. It usually requires 0 years of experience, depending on education. More about Internship contracts.

UNICEF works in 190 countries and territories to protect the rights of every child. UNICEF has spent 70 years working to improve the lives of children and their families.

Defending children's rights throughout their lives requires a global presence, aiming to produce results and understand their effects. UNICEF believes all children have a right to survive, thrive and fulfil their potential to the benefit of a better world.

Turkey remains home to the largest registered refugee population in the world. Over 4 million refugees and asylum-seekers are registered in Turkey, of whom nearly 1.7 million are children. While the Government continued to lead the overall crisis response and remained the largest provider of humanitarian aid to Syrians as well as other groups, the overall goal of UNICEF is to reduce the equity gaps affecting the most vulnerable boys and girls.

For every child, an Advocate

If you are committed and passionate about making a lasting difference for children, UNICEF Turkey would like to hear from you.

How can you make a difference?

UNICEF offers the opportunity for summer interns, talented university students, to gain valuable professional experience while being exposed to UNICEF’s work. At the same time, UNICEF benefits from working with interns as they are a significant asset, providing updated academic knowledge, technical know-how and other valuable skills to the organization.

Significant efforts have been made to strengthen the education system to meet the educational needs of vulnerable refugee children[1] and to develop a more inclusive policy environment to increase refugee children’s access to quality education. However, more needs to be done. Access to relevant education in Turkey continues to be hindered by multiple challenges. Increased long-term, predictable and flexible financing is still necessary to ensure the provision and promotion of inclusive and equitable learning pathways for all children and adolescents in Turkey, particularly the most vulnerable.

In the 2020-2021 school year, by September 2020, all Temporary Education Centers (TECs) were closed, and all children were mainstreamed into Turkish public schools. As of March 2021, 774,257 Syrian refugee children (G: 379,432; B: 394,825) were enrolled in Turkish public schools, representing an overall increase of 13 per cent compared to the previous school year 2019/2020. The Gross Enrolment Rate (GER) reached 64.7 per cent in March 2021, a 1.4 per cent increase from the previous academic year of 2019/2020. Despite significant overall achievements resulting from support from various education sector partners, more than 400,000 children remain out of school, corresponding to approximately 35.3 per cent of the Syrian school-age population. The COVID-19 pandemic threatens to reverse the gains made in refugee children’s enrolment over the last few years and adversely impact children’s enrolment and learning in the coming months if the COVID-19 situation does not subside in Turkey. For example, between June 2020 (previous school year 2019/2020) and March 2021 (current 2020/2021 school year), the GER for pre-primary and primary decreased by 4 per cent and 9 per cent, respectively. Also, the COVID-19 pandemic could further impact the already low gross enrolment rates in pre-primary and upper-secondary of 27.3 per cent and 40.1 per cent respectively in the 2020-2021 school year.

Building on over 60 years of experience in Turkey, UNICEF has worked closely with the Government of Turkey (GoT) since the Syria Crisis began in 2011. In the subsequent years, meaningful progress has been made in addressing the critical needs of the Syrian refugee population. UNICEF continues to work with multiple partners and across sectors to ensure positive results for children to access and thrive in education settings, including across regions within the Regional Refugee and Resilience Plan (3RP) framework as a leader of the plan in Turkey. UNICEF leads the Education Working Group, , the South-East Turkey Education and Child Protection Working Groups.

To improve awareness and knowledge on different educational opportunities available for all children and youth, including Syrian children under temporary protection, UNICEF, since 2014, has been implementing an annual “Back to School Campaign” (BTS) in close partnership with Education Sector Working Group (ESWG) members. In 2020, in addition to the regular BTS campaign, UNICEF worked closely with MoNE to support nationwide efforts to help children continue their learning during extended school closures, practice safe hygiene practices during the pandemic and advocated for children’s safe return to school when schools reopened for face-to-face learning.

A survey was conducted within the BTS campaign highlighting challenges to access education (school enrolment and access to EBA – the MoNE’s distance learning platform). The first round of a parents’ survey that was conducted in December 2020 covered 4,000 families and nearly 10,000 children. The second round of this parents’ survey is planned for May 2021. This survey aims to collect information about the challenges and difficulties refugees face during the registration process in schools and the challenges refugee children are facing during the pandemic, including challenges related to learning, physical and socio-emotional wellbeing.

Under the supervision of the Education Specialist, the intern in the education section of the UNICEF Turkey Country Office (TCO) will provide specific technical support to analyse data from both surveys, carry out a desk review on existing data sources and reports, and draft a report highlighting the key bottlenecks and challenges refugee children face in accessing education, especially during the pandemic. The report will guide ESWG members on the key challenges to address and identify key advocacy issues to enhance access to quality education for refugee children in Turkey.

[1] Syrian nationals who came to Turkey after April 2011, have the rights and privileges accorded to those under temporary protection (UTP), have the right to stay in Turkey, protection against forcible return to Syria, and access to fundamental rights and needs, such as health and education.

1. DELIVERABLES

• Desk review of reports, surveys and studies that have been carried out in 2020 and 2021 by various stakeholders that tackle access to education for refugees in Turkey, focusing on the impact of COVID-19 on access to education and on learning/learning losses.
• An analytical report developed using qualitative and quantitative research methods to analyse challenges refugee children face in accessing quality education in Turkey.
• Prepare a PowerPoint presentation to summarize key findings from the analytical report.

Duty Station:

The internship assignment will be home-based. No travel is required.

Duration: 3 Months

Modality:

Remote - Full-time

Stipend:

In accordance to UNICEF's guidelines, interns will be paid a nominal stipend per month. There is no expectancy of employment at the end of the internship.

Insurance: UNICEF will not be responsible for costs arising from accidents and/or illness incurred during the intern's service, whether on or off UNICEF premises. Therefore, the selected candidate must provide proof of enrolment in a health/accident plan prior to start his/her work. If accepted, the intern will be required to provide a copy of health insurance coverage and to fill out the relevant UNICEF forms on conditions regarding service as an intern.

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

Applicants should meet the following requirements:

• Be enrolled in a graduate or PhD degree programme or have graduated within the past two years in an education-related field, social sciences field, economic studies or development studies.
• A strong understanding of current international development issues, especially in education.
• Strong research and analytical skills and ability to conduct critical literature reviews
• Experience in qualitative and quantitative data analysis
• Fluency in English, with strong writing skills. Fluency in another official and working language of the UN would be an asset.
• Excellent academic performance as demonstrated by recent university or institutional records.
• Additional consideration will be given for any past experience in related fields.

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF's values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, and Accountability (CRITA) and core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results.

To view our competency framework, please visit here.

Click here to learn more about UNICEF’s values and competencies.

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages all candidates, irrespective of gender, nationality, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of the organization.

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:

Mobility is a condition of international professional employment with UNICEF and an underlying premise of the international civil service.

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