“Enhancing Employability Skills of People with Disabilities” programme

Invitation to Quote (ITQ)

Specialists to provide psychological counseling to the programme’s beneficiaries

Assignment: / A contracted company/specialists will conduct participants’ needs assessment and ongoing psychological counseling to programme’s beneficiaries
Contract type: / Service Contract
Location: / Baku, Azerbaijan
Duration: / 7 months

About the programme:

BP and its co-venturers in the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli, Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan, Shah Deniz and South Caucasus Pipeline projects have launched a new social investment programme in partnership with the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection of Population to help enhance employment opportunities for people with disabilities in Azerbaijan.

The programme, which is part of BP and its co-venturer’s social investment portfolio, will be implemented by the British Council Azerbaijan.

Enhancing Employability Skills of People with Disabilities programme aims at increasing employability prospects and the skills of people with disabilities living in Baku, Azerbaijan. This programme will cover a variety of activities that are targeted at improving employability skills of 100 people with disabilities as well as positioning them amongst businesses as potential quality workforce. The project will involve all the relevant decision-makers, businesses as partners into the project. As a result of programme participation, young people with disabilities will enhance their skills and knowledge in certain disciplines that will allow them to become more employable. In order to benefit from the global expertise the project will involve a UK expert to increase awareness about employment of people with disabilities among the businesses and employers in Azerbaijan.

The project aims to increase the employability prospects and the skills of people with disabilities. This will be achieved by enhancing the following skills:

  • English language skills development
  • Computer skills development
  • Soft skills development

Background

The main target of the programme is to make programme participants more employable equipping them with skills necessary for the world of work. This will be achieved by enhancing the English language, computer and soft skills of the programme participants. Psychological counseling is a part of the services that will be rendered to the programme’s beneficiaries. A thorough needs assessment of the programme beneficiaries’ needs will be conducted by the service provider that is intended at rendering counseling services to programme’s beneficiaries throughout the programme’s length. A professional counseling company that had prior experience of working with people with disabilities will be selected based on the proposal, as well the interview to be conducted with the short- listed candidates.

Responsibilities and tasks of the company/specialists

British Council Azerbaijan is looking for experienced psychological consultations service providers that have had experience in working with people with disabilities. The company will be required to provide initial assessment of project beneficiaries’ needs, conduct psychological consultations within seven month period. The company will be required to provide constant monitoring of needs and progress of project’s beneficiaries. The company will be required to provide individual development plans and reporting on each participant’s progress, needs assessment and recommendations.

Contracted psychologists will be meeting with 100 selected PWDs and preparing IDPs (Individual Development Plans) within the project. These plans will include necessary individual psychological support and consultations for the required period of time during the project duration. This psychological intervention is necessary to ensure that the participants are ready and will benefit from the project.

This should be a highly experienced expert company combining profound psychological counseling and working with people with disabilities expertise. Interested company needs to submit a proposal by the indicated deadline.

If short-listed and selected, the expert or company representative is expected to participate in a face-to-face interviews to be conducted by the project manager and representatives of BP and British Council’s education team.

Funding

Expenses of the psychological consultations services provider will be covered by British Council Azerbaijan including consultation fees, needs assessment and ongoing monitoring of project beneficiaries’ progress based on the contract. The expert company will receive payment for services based on a contract agreement with the British Council Azerbaijan, relevant invoices and other required documentation.

Specifics

The duration of the services and payment for consultation services will not exceed seven months.

Selected company should provide evidence of the accessible venue suitable for people with disabilities.

Timetable

Deadline for proposal submission: 20 February

Short-listing and interviews 21-23 February

Duration of services 7 months

Expertise

The supplier must possess the relevant expertise to deliver the required services, including:

  • Prior experience on providing psychological consultations, needs assessment and ongoing support to people with disabilities
  • Accessible venue that is necessary to ensure easy access to people with disabilities

Supplier response

If you intend to submit your documents to the bid please send initial confirmation e-mail to as soon as you receive the documents.

Please complete Proposal Form (attached to this ITQ) and submit it to no later than 20 February, 2018 1700 hours (Baku time)

  • Please ensure that you send your response in good time to prevent issues with technology – late submissions may not be considered.
  • Do not submit any additional documentation except where specifically requested.
  • Supporting evidence (PDF, JPG, PPT, Word and Excel formats only - other formats should not be used) can be provided to substantiate your response – please ensure that all attachments/supporting evidence are clearly labelled with the appropriate section/question number.
  • Where supporting evidence is requested as ‘or equivalent’ – it is the Supplier’s responsibility to prove the relevant equivalence.
  • Any alteration to a question will invalidate your response to that question and a mark of zero will be applied.
  • Completion and submission of your response does not guarantee award of any British Council Contract.

Evaluation Criteria

The award criterion for this ITQ is the most economically advantageous and best quality.

The Supplier’s submissions will be taken into consideration only if they pass Section 1 - Mandatory and Discretionary Rejection.

Supplier responses to this ITQ will be assessed using the following criteria and weightings.

Criteria / Weighting
Section 1 – Mandatory and Discretionary Rejection / Pass/Fail
Section 2 – High level knowledge of best practice in providing psychological counselling services for people with disabilities / 20%
Section 3 – Experience of working with people with disabilities in Azerbaijan on providing individual psychological support and consultations and development of Individual Development Plans (IDP).
It is also required to draw strategy and tactics how the needs assessment, constant monitoring of needs and progress of individuals will be implemented. / 40%
Section 4 – Availability of accessible venue for counseling/meetings that is necessary to ensure easy access to people with disabilities / 20%
Section 5 – Costing/Price / 10%
Section 6 - Understanding of British Council’s aims/objectives / 10%

Evaluation of all submitted responses will be undertaken by the evaluation panel which will consist of British Council and BP representatives with relevant and significant experience and knowledge of the requirements.

Evaluation of all submissions will only consider information presented within the ITQ response. Previous/current relationships with suppliers cannot be taken into account when evaluating submissions unless the previous/current experience is clearly evidenced within the response. Evaluation will be fair and transparent.

The responses under each section will be scored based on the following matrix:

Points / Interpretation
15 / A comprehensive and strong answer indicating the supplier is fully capable and experienced to deliver the required outcomes. A detailed response that directly responds to all requirements with no ambiguity and relevant examples provided.
12 / There are slight concerns that the supplier will not be able to achieve all the outcomes required and response lacked details of relevant experience. A less detailed response that broadly responds to the requirement with some ambiguity and few relevant examples provided.
10 / There are concerns that the supplier will not be able to achieve the outcomes required and response significantly lacks details of relevant experience. A less detailed response that broadly responds to the requirement with some ambiguity and no/irrelevant examples provided.
5 / There are serious indications that the supplier will not be able to achieve the outcomes required and has not provided appropriate evidence of experience to successfully deliver the outcomes required. A response that is not entirely relevant to the requirement, with ambiguity and lacking specific detail.
0 / The answer is non-compliant and/or no relevant information has been received to demonstrate the supplier can achieve the required outcomes. No response or a response that is entirely irrelevant.

The lowest all-inclusive cost proposed will receive 10% as per the evaluation criteria. All other submissions will be allocated a % score pro-rata.

The final evaluation score will then be calculated for each response by adding together the scores for each Section.

Confidentiality

The aim of the information provided in this document is to give suppliers an adequate understanding of the British Council’s requirements.

All relevant policies that suppliers are expected to adhere to can be found on the British Council website –

This document does not constitute an offer to provide goods/services to the British Council and the British Council is not obliged to award a contract for these goods/services.

The British Council reserves the right to request reference information.

Payment and Invoicing

The British Council will pay correctly addressed and undisputed invoices within 30 days. The British Council has a requirement for invoices to be produced in an electronic format.

Essential information to be included on any invoice for the British Council is:

  • A description of the services supplied.
  • The British Council reference number/Purchase Order number.
  • Addressed to Accounts Payable.
  • The costs including VAT (if applicable) and any other charges

Contracting

Any submissions must expressly accept the British Council’s Contract (Terms and Conditions). If you have any objections these must be stated in writing on a separate appendix.

Key Background Information:

BP and its co-venturers’ social investment initiatives

BP as operator of the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli, Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan, Shah Deniz and South Caucasus Pipeline projects recognize that the success of their projects in the Caspian region depends, in part, on the operators’ ability to create tangible benefits from these projects for the people of the region. To achieve this, BP continues to implement major social investment projects, which include educational programmes, building skills and capabilities in local communities, improving access to social infrastructure in communities, supporting local enterprises through provision of access to finance and training, support for cultural legacy and sport, as well as technical assistance to public institutions.

The British Council in Azerbaijan

The British Council is the United Kingdom’s international organization for cultural relations and educational opportunities. Its purpose is to build engagement and trust for the UK through the exchange of knowledge and ideas between people worldwide. It seeks to achieve its aims by working in education, science, governance, English and the arts. Its programmes, products and services reached a total audience of 600 million people worldwide.

The British Council was established in 1934 and incorporated by Royal Charter in 1940. It is registered as a charity in England and Wales (charity no. 209131) and Scotland (charity no. SCO37733). It is also an executive non-departmental public body, with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office as its sponsoring department.

Its primary charitable objects are set out in the Charter and are stated to be:

  • Promote cultural relationships and the understanding of different cultures between people and peoples of the United Kingdom and other countries;
  • Promote a wider knowledge of the United Kingdom;
  • Develop a wider knowledge of the English language;
  • Encourage cultural, scientific, technological and other educational co-operation between the United Kingdom and other countries;
  • Otherwise promote the advancement of education.

The British Council works in more than 110 countries around the world and employs over 7000 staff worldwide. It has its headquarters in the UK, with offices in London, Manchester, Belfast, Cardiff and Edinburgh.

Further information can be found at

Our work in Azerbaijan is in the fields of education, English and the arts.