Standard Request for Proposals for the Selection of Consultants -1
Terms of Reference
TERM OF REFERENCE FOR CONSULTANCY/TRAINING AND PLACEMENT SERVICES IN JOB PLACEMENT SERVICES SECTOR
I. PROGRAM DESCRIPTION:
The Afghanistan Workforce Development Program (AWDP) is a four-year program funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) implemented by Ministry of Education’s Deputy Ministry of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (DM-TVET) with technical support from Creative Associates International.
The goal of the AWDP is to increase mid-career employment opportunities for Afghan men and women by improving the quality of market-driven technical training and increasing job placements and salaries in key economic sectors. Support for the expansion and strengthening of the private sector in key economic sectors is a priority area for both the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (GIRoA) and USAID.
Mid-career skilled workers are in high demand in several expanding economic sectors. Developing the capacity of skilled Afghan workers, and placing them into private sector jobs, will contribute to a reduction in (a) the high level of under- and unemployment among Afghan nationals; and (b) the current dependency on foreign workers to fill mid-career, skilled jobs in Afghanistan. The grant under this RFP will provide training and job placement support to jobseekers looking for work with the private sector.
Program Objectives:
· Increase employment for Afghan mid-career men and women.
· Improve technical and vocational education and training
· Link training service providers with employers to understand private sector skills needs.
· Adapt curricula which are consistent with private sector needs.
· Improve TVET and business education teaching and training skills.
Provide job placement services for mid-career job seekers with the private sector.
II. Scope of Work
The purpose of this Request for Proposals (RFP) is to solicit high quality proposals from national and international non-government organizations, private companies, and private education institutions to provide job placement services for mid-career job seekers with private and semi-public[1] sector.
The Ministry of Education (MoE) of the (GIRoA) through this RFP places special emphasis on:
· MoE’s interest in job placement services and completion of training schedules by contractors
· Gender equity
· Encouraging female owned businesses to apply for this RFP and develop/adapt curricula specifically designed for women. Additionally, the RFP will encourage TVET/ BEST institutes to have career counseling programs specifically tailored to the needs of women job seekers.
Providing employment opportunities to qualified mid-career job seekers is a priority for both the GIRoA and USAID. Mid-career skilled job seekers are in high demand for several increasingly expanding economic sectors, i.e., construction, business management, and ICT in Afghanistan. The program will assist skilled jobseekers across Afghanistan with developing sets of skills that will increase their chances of securing employment with private companies. These skills may include CV writing skills, interview skills, communication skills, work ethic skills, etc. This will contribute to a reduction in (a) the high level of under- and unemployment among Afghan nationals; and (b) the current dependency on foreign workers to fill mid-career, skilled jobs in Afghanistan.
Contracts under this RFP will be awarded to organizations to provide modern, demand-driven job placement services. The services to be provided by the job placement service provider must include: (a) registration of qualified, mid-career job seekers who have received specific competency based training through AWDP grantees or other recognized organization/companies or who can demonstrate they possess technical skills that are in demand by the private sector in Afghanistan; (b) registration of mid-career job vacancies in key economic sectors; (c) provision of pre-employment trainings programs, job preparation services for mid-career job seekers; (d) provision of job development, job matching and job placement services for mid-career job seekers; and (e) provision of follow-up services for successfully placed mid-career workers and employers. The effective and efficient provision of these services will require a fully operational comprehensive IT network and data base.
Consultants are to submit Expressions of Interest in accordance with the instructions in Section II of this document. When developing an expression of interest, the consultants are required to consider the following guidelines:
1. A Demand Assessment as the first and important step of the model should be conducted within a time frame of three weeks to one month for the first round of skill training.
2. Selection of program targeted job seekers based the demand assessment of private companies.
3. Training Delivery will depend on the design of the curriculum. The maximum time for this activity to be completed is six months.
4. Recruit Trainers with relevant Bachelor level qualification and at least three years relevant experience.
5. Employment Related Services and Placement is carried out after successful completion of training and starts after completion of the first round of training programs. This activity will run until the end of the project.
6. Follow Up as the last activity must be conducted after successful placement of training graduates and will continue through the rest of the project.
Each of the activities above is articulated in details from A to C below.
Gender Equity:
All consultants are required to ensure that the following requirements are specifically considered in their proposals for this RFP, as they are the minimum gender requirements:
- At least 25% of the proposed target of people trained and placed are women
- All relevant data are gender disaggregated with result frameworks including gender sensitive and specific indicators
- Inclusion of gender equality results and indicators in the proposal
- Gender equity is an integral part of the proposal
- A gender focal point is included in the structure of the staffing as part of the proposal to this RFP with clear responsibilities and time allocated for the tasks.
The consultants are hereby required to include a specific section in their response to this RFP that will clearly state their strategy to reach the pre-determined targets stated above for the training and placement of women.
Female owned businesses are encouraged to apply for this RFP and develop/adapt curricula specifically designed for women
Through this RFP, the MoE is encouraging and requesting all female owned businesses and enterprises to submit proposals for funding. The RFP requires that consultants propose specific curricula that will accelerate entry of women into the workforce.
Upon the final award of a contract, the successful consultant is required to work with at least two private TVET and BEST institutions that have career counseling centers and provide technical assistance to them. Alternatively, the contractors will provide the same services themselves so they can adapt and tailor specific programs for trained women and job seekers to accelerate their entry into the workforce.
A. Private Sector Demand Assessment
Program Description: The applicant must possess the capacity to provide modern, demand-driven walk-in and on-line job placement services. The key principles of the applicant’s strategic vision for the provision of job placement service delivery should be to establish partnerships with private sector enterprises in key economic sectors. The job placement service delivery will be required to meet the needs of private sector enterprises for qualified, competent and reliable mid-career skilled workers.
The Skills Demand Assessment is the first component of the AWDP model. Each consultant must make contact with, and develop a relationship with private sector companies (PSCs). This contact helps the applicant understand the nature of the PSCs’ businesses and their demand for specific sector related skills.
After the award of a contract to the successful consultant, contact will continue on a collaborative basis throughout the life of the contract. The relationship is recorded in a contract agreement which guides the process of gathering data about skills required by the PSCs. The result of this collaboration is a clear mutual understanding of what skills private and semi-public sector enterprises need.
Proposal Technical Requirement: Applicants are required to elaborate how they will contact potential employers, discuss the needs of the companies, and conduct preliminary assessment to elaborate companies needed competences. Applicants are to demonstrate and explain in the proposal that contacts were made and provide an initial skills demand assessment report. The report should include company’s names and competencies identified. This report, in summary, will be an important part of the application.
The proposal must clearly articulate the design and implementation of PSCs vacancies identification process. Since targeting women is especially important for AWDP, women-owned businesses are strongly encouraged to apply. Regardless of ownership, the successful applicants will clearly elaborate how they plan on reaching and incorporating into the workforce female jobseekers, thus contributing to the overall goal of contributing to greater gender equity in Afghanistan
B. Program Targeted Job Seekers Selection:
Program Description: The AWDP targeted jobseekers for this contract are mid-career job seekers who have received specific competency based training through AWDP grantees or other recognized organizations/companies or who can demonstrate that they possess technical skills that are in demand by the private sector in Afghanistan, and are holding at least a high school certificate with one or two years’ of work experience or are graduates from TVET/BEST institutions or are university graduates who are looking for jobs.
Proposal Technical Requirement: The consultants must develop and present a methodology, including specific selection criteria, for the recruitment of potential mid-career job seekers who can demonstrate they possess technical skills in demand by the private sector in Afghanistan, to be placed in the private and public entities. In the recruitment methodology special preference is to be given to women to ensure that at least 25% of the recruited mid-career job seekers are women. The consultants are encouraged to design training courses specifically targeting women and women-owned businesses
C. Employment Related Services
After successful completion of the private sector demand assessment and program targeted job seeker selection, the next step is for the contractor to place 70% of targeted job seekers in appropriate private sector positions. AWDP has divided the employment related services into four main parts as following;
· Job Development and Databases
· Pre-Employment Training
· Job Matching, Job Placement and Salary Increase
· Follow up Services
Proposal Technical Requirement:
a) Job Development and Databases: The consultants will be required to include methodology for job development. The consultants will be required to describe how they will identify job opportunities, conduct job analysis and design job seeker profile forms. The consultants will be required to explain how they will develop the employment database containing information about job opportunities within private sector companies for mid-career job seekers including men and women.
b) Pre-Employment Training: The consultants must outline the elements of the pre-employment training that needs to be provided to the trainees for placing job seekers into mid-career positions with private sector companies. The outline must indicate that the pre-employment training will cover CV and cover letter development, how to diplomatically follow up on job applications that they have already made for example, sending a thank you letter for accepting aCV and especially for an interview, planning and conducting job search activities, networking skills, interviewing skills, labour market knowledge and organizational behaviour.
c) Job matching and Job Placement Services: The consultants must describe the process of job matching and job placement services that will be provided for targeted job seekers. The consultants will be required to describe the job matching services they plan to provide including a comprehensive description of how they will engage with the private/public sector employers to identify job vacancies. The consultants must describe how they will match job seekers’ skills to job vacancies based on their skill sets and abilities with the demands of the private sector for employers with those skill sets. In addition, successful consultants will elaborate on how their program will provide opportunities to female trainees to be paired or partnered with female role models in private business for both formal and informal coaching and mentoring. Applicants are encouraged to articulate a plan for holding female-focused job fairs, career days, and educational site visits to female friendly businesses.
d) Follow-Up Services: The consultants are required to explain their follow up services strategy for job seekers who have been placed in private/public entities. This strategy must elaborate on the mechanism through which the contractor and AWDP will be able to verify each placement. The mechanism also needs to ensure that the placed job seekers maintain their employment and will receive on-the-job support as required.
After the contract is awarded, the contractor will be required to develop job development processes, employment databases, provide pre-employment training, which includes CV and cover letter development, planning and conducting job search activities, networking skills, interviewing skills, labour market knowledge, and job maintenance skills. Upon the award, the contractor will also be expected to provide a clear schedule tied to fulfilling the milestones of the contract. The contractor will use contacts established with the private sector in the needs assessment phase. They will develop databases for matching job vacancies with the profiles of the selected job seekers and introduce or direct, job seekers to appropriate employers. The contractor will also conduct follow up services for all placed job seekers to ensure that they are successfully placed and maintain their jobs for duration of at least three months. It is required that the contractor should complete placement of at least 70% of their target.
I. Geographic Coverage
Kabul, Jalalabad, Kandahar, Herat, Mazar e Sharif, Kundoz, Khost, Gardez, Ghazni, Bamyan, Badakhshan, Baghlan and Shabarghan
II. Tenure
The tenure of the assignment is for a period of Ten Months.
III. Qualifications
A profile of the organizations applying for this RFP must be submitted along with the technical proposal. Consultants must provide a written record of experience that either demonstrates their institutional accreditation or validates their capacity to deliver services that meet national or international standards.
The institutional profile must include the following information:
a) Registration, accreditation and/or certification of the institution;