Consultancy-Education consultant: Skills development, alternative learning and systems strengthening, Abuja Nigeria (1 year)

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, commitment

In Nigeria, UNICEF works in a complex humanitarian and development setting to fulfill and protect children’s rights in partnership with the government, civil society, children, and families.  UNICEF Nigeria is one of the largest UNICEF Country Offices globally – click the link to learn more about UNICEF in Nigeria: https://www.unicef.org/nigeria/

How can you make a difference?

With a population of 206 million, 43% of whom are below 14 years of age, Nigeria is considered young. At the current population growth rate of 2.5, Nigeria has the potential to reap a demographic dividend if young people are healthy, educated, connected to communities, and have opportunities for decent work and livelihoods. Over the last two decades, Nigeria has made great strides in improving access to education which has increased junior secondary school enrolment and closed gender gaps, namely in primary school

However, progress in enrolment is threatened by high out-of-school rates, dropout and persistent inequality as more than 10 million children remain out-of-school at the primary level and another 8 million at the junior secondary level, making Nigeria the country with the largest number of out-of-school children worldwide.

Purpose of Assignment

The main objective of this consultancy is to support the UNICEF Nigeria Country Office to accelerate and scale-up its support to the Federal Ministry of Education (FME) and State Ministries of Education on strengthening skills development, alternative learning systems, including via the Nigeria Learning Passport, and systems strengthening.

Scope of Work:

1.Support the finalization of the National Policy on Skills Development and National Skills Development Framework

• Provide technical input to the National Policy on Skills Development.

• Support the validation and technical review of the National Policy on Skills Development.

• Review final graphic design of the National Skills Development Framework.

2. Support implementation of skills development programmes (FLN, digital, transferable, employability skills)

• Produce a lesson learned document on evidence from the field as skills development programs are implemented in 2023-24.

• Provide technical support to the desk review of the employability skills for senior secondary schools.

• Provide technical support in developing and testing of the model on employability skills for senior secondary.

3. Develop systems strengthening knowledge products

• Support development of knowledge products for the education public financing analysis.

• Support development of advocacy materials on the National Assessment on Learning Achievement in Basic Education (NALABE).

4. Support scale up of the Nigeria Learning Passport (NLP)

• Develop a lesson learned document on NLP advocacy and comms activities to assess what worked on scaling up the NLP, raising usership numbers, and increasing course completion.

• Collect NLP user feedback through development and launch of at least 3 NLP user surveys and sharing of results.

• Manage development of knowledge products and advocacy/communications materials for the scale-up of the NLP.

• Maintain and update advocacy toolkit for UNICEF Field Offices for NLP scale-up and update monthly advocacy and communications tracker.

5.Support proposal and strategy development

• Develop or update 3 investment cases.

• Support development of 3 proposals and strategies.

• Review and provide inputs on 4 Education team proposals.

Deliverables/Outputs:

Deliverable 1:  

Support the finalization of the National Policy on Skills Development and National Skills Development Framework

• Provide technical input to the National Policy on Skills Development

• Support the validation and technical review of the National Policy on Skills Development

• Review final graphic design of the National Skills Development Framework

Develop knowledge management products 

• Create, review, and finalize 6 briefing notes for events/meetings

• Develop and/or review and update 2 cheat sheets

Support organization of events for NCO Basic Education team

• Annual Education staff retreat.

Deliverable 2:

Develop knowledge management products 

•  Create, review and finalize 6 talking points and presentations for events/meetings

•  Develop and/or review and update 2 factsheets

Support proposal and strategy development 

• Develop or update 3 investment cases

•   Support development of 3 proposals and strategies

•   Review and provide inputs on 4 Education team proposals

Support staff professional development

• Support identification of staff capacity development needs and process of securing appropriate trainings or resources to fill gaps

• Lead one internal capacity development series/seminar

Support organization of events for NCO Basic Education team

• 4 seminars on education topics.

Deliverable 3:

Support scale up of the Nigeria Learning Passport (NLP)

• Develop a lessons learned document on NLP advocacy and comms activities to assess what worked on scaling up the NLP, raising usership numbers, and increasing course completion

• Collect NLP user feedback through development and launch of at least 3 NLP user surveys and sharing of results

• Manage development of knowledge products and advocacy/communications materials for the scale-up of the NLP

• Maintain and update advocacy toolkit for UNICEF Field Offices for NLP scale-up, and update monthly advocacy and communications tracker

Develop communications and advocacy assets

• Draft and finalize 2 Op-Eds/articles

• Develop communication assets and key messages for 4 international days or events

• Maintain monthly advocacy and communications tracker on all UNICEF Education media mentions

• Organize 2 donor engagement field visits

Support organization of events for NCO Basic Education team

• Education Mid-year review

If you would like to know more about this position, please review the complete Job Description here. TOR Skills development alternative learning systems strengthening.docx

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

Education:

A master’s degree in in education, international development, social sciences or other relevant fields.

Experiences:

A minimum of 5 years of experience in supporting large-scale education programmes.

At least 3 years of experience in research, evidence generation and knowledge management

Working experience in skills development programming, alternative learning, including digital learning

Skills:

Experience working with a range of partners to monitor the implement policy commitments

Experience developing resources for or guiding stakeholders to develop policy frameworks

Result-based project/programme management skills.

Experiences in working for UNICEF or UN agencies.

Experience in West Africa and ideally Nigeria context.

Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) or a local language is an asset.

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 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.

Applicants must submit their financial and technical proposals along with this application. Applications without these will not be considered. Use this form to provide your financial proposal. All-Inclusive Financial Proposal Form (1).docx

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.