Assessment and Revision of the Pre-Service Training for Supervisors and Private Service Providers of Child Optimized Financial Education (COFE)

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As part of the Sustainable Outcomes for Children and Youth Project (SOCY) in Uganda, CRS’ Child
Optimized Financial Education Curriculum. This is a financial education curriculum that supports
caregivers of vulnerable children to plan for, save for, and invest in education, nutritious foods, and
health-related expenses for all the children in their care. The curriculum includes key themes, such as HIV,
Child protection, and talking to Children about money. Subsequent revisions of COFE also discuss the
importance of family care and disability inclusion.
During the development of COFE, CRS learned from partner-based supervisors and community-based
Savings and Internal Lending Communities (SILC) Private Service Providers (PSP) that they need additional
training on HIV, using non-stigmatizing language, child protection, age, and stage-appropriate ways to talk
to children about money as well as an understanding of Gender-Based Violence (GBV) and appropriate
referrals. To address this need, CRS developed a 2.5-day “pre-service training” for COFE supervisors and
PSPs to address this need. Additional modules were later added to promote family care and disability
inclusion for care reform projects. The pre-service training provides background information for partner
staff and PSPs to help them better engage with COFE participants. It is not delivered directly to participants
but rather delivered at the beginning of a 13-day COFE phase 1 training that is part of the 25-day COFE
training.
Both COFE and the pre-service training are written at a sixth-grade reading level to align with the
educational profile of most PSPs. PSPs are selected from the communities where they live. They are
required to be able to read and write, but many have very basic English language skills and may not have
a reading habit, so it takes them more time to read the materials. Therefore, all materials must be written
at a sixth-grade reading level.
Assessment and Revision of the Pre-Service Training for Supervisors
and Private Service Providers of Child Optimized Financial Education
(COFE)
Request for Proposals
2
Since its initial use in PEPFAR OVC projects in Kenya, Uganda, Zimbabwe, and Nigeria, COFE and the preservice
training have been used in Education, Family Care, and Gender Equality projects. However,
feedback from trainers suggests that not all the content, especially the HIV content, is needed for non-
HIV projects. To address this, CRS staff have tried to rapidly adapt the pre-service training to each project,
which isn’t feasible to continue if COFE is to be delivered at scale. To address this problem, CRS would like
to:
1. Conduct an evaluation to assess:
a. Perceived usefulness of the pre-service training by CRS staff, COFE supervisors and SILC PSPs.
b. Alignment of the pre-service content with participant needs.
c. Format and duration of the pre-service training by CRS staff, COFE supervisors, and SILC PSPs.
d. Quality of pre-service training facilitation.
e. The orientation for pre-service training of trainers.
2. Redesign the existing pre-service training manual, quizzes, and job aides to improve pre-service
training and make it easier to use across CRS’s diverse project portfolio. This may include the
development of self-contained modules, e.g., quizzes, pieces of training, slides, and tools that can
be added and subtracted from core training.
3. Improve the preparation of pre-service trainers.