UNITED NATIONS CHILDREN’S FUND

UNICEF in Serbia is seeking qualified

Consultant - Non-formal Education Field Expert

Ref. Number: VN 34 – 513099
Location: Belgrade

UNICEF in Serbia is seeking a Consultant to support further quality development of nonformal education programmes in government centres for refugees and migrants and their linkage with mainstream education. The duration of the assignment is from June 2018 to 31 December 2018, up to 45 working days over the 7 months period.

The closing date for applications is 29 May 2018. The detailed Terms of Reference can be found on this link.

Qualified candidates are requested to submit their application through Application Link by 29 May 2018, ref. job number 513099 Non-formal Education Field Expert.

The application must include the following:

1. Daily rate in RSD (all costs to be included e.g. health insurance, pension, usage of mobile phone)
2. Daily allowance cost for travel within Serbia in RSD (for overnight)
3. Transportation costs in RSD per km for transport to Obrenovac, Krnjaca, Banja Koviljaca, Bogovadja, Sjenica, Tutin, Bela Palanka, Vranje, Bujanovac, Presevo, Bosilegrad, Dimitrovgard, Pirot, Adasevci, Principovac, Sombor, Subotica, Kikinda and to potential other new locations of Asylum/ Reception Centres.

Important note: Incomplete applications will not be taken into consideration.

Only short-listed candidates will be contacted. UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages qualified female and male candidates from all national, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities to apply.

Purpose of Activity/Assignment:

There are currently around 3.750 refugees, asylum - seekers and migrants accommodated in government facilities, out of whom 1.150 are children (242 at the pre-school, 475 at the primary school and 266 at the secondary school age). In January 2018, 86% of refugee and migrant children were of the primary school age and 15% of secondary school aged children have attended mainstream education.

In 2017 UNICEF successfully advocated for the enrollment of primary aged children within the formal education system and advocates to ensure their attendance at these institutions. This has been essential in ensuring self-confidence and learning for these children in addition to laying the fundamental groundwork for these children’s integration in to Serbia should their families successfully seek asylum.

Alongside this, non-formal education programmes within the migrant centers has focused on the development of core competences for lifelong learning for refugees and migrants who are at the pre-primary or high school ages. The aim of these programmes is to facilitate the eventual access of refugee and migrant children (who fall in to these age categories) into mainstream education by developing competences in communication in Serbian and foreign languages, basic math, science and technology, as well as social/civic competences, cultural awareness and expression, and fostering a sense of initiative and entrepreneurship. This level of programming emanates from the 8 UNICEF supported Child Friendly Spaces (CFS) in these centers.

In the previous year, UNICEF engaged education field experts who supported the quality development of non-formal education programming for children at the pre-, primary and secondary school age through mentoring, training and counselling of facilitators. Support was largely provided in the field, but also on-line and through traditional trainings, including the provision of adequate working materials. A focus in 2018 will be to enrol children who fall in to the legally mandated pre-primary age set to attend pre-primary education, like UNICEFs success with primary age migrant children.

Beginning in July 2018, Child Friendly Spaces (CFS) will commence a yearlong management transition from NGOs to the State Commissariat for Refugees (SCRM). This will involve maximizing programming and knowledge transfer to SCRM staff. With CFS being an essential platform for non-formal education activities will need to be maximally tailored to the population and in close consultation with UNICEFs Education Section expertise.

With the main characteristics of non-formal education in mind (i.e. mixed age groups, different socio, cultural and language background of children, programmes implemented by different partners, availability of facilities in each of the centres, need to support greater parents participation and establishment of communication with schools and support to regular school attendance through homework clubs) there is the continuous need for capacity building of facilitators of non-formal education programmes in order to support them to meet these diverse tasks.

UNICEFs support provided so far has been highly appreciated and valued, both by the representatives of state institutions and organizations present in the field and there are still requests from Government and CSOs to UNICEF to support further capacity building in these centers to ensure that more structured nonformal education programmes are available, linked with inclusion of refugee and migrant children in mainstream education and to the extent possible standardized.

Start Date: June 2018
End Date: 31 December 2018
Number of working days/months: Up to 45 working days over the 7 months period (payed on actual day worked).

Work Assignment Overview

Task 1: Support development of competencies of facilitators in CFS in providing non-formal education across the migrant centers.

Activities:

• Providing site specific support to facilitators, and trough mentoring, coaching and/or necessary additional trainings through filed visits
• Provide professional on-line support to facilitators of non-formal education programmes.
• Reference: BP11PBlcXo32Lh8l_pPDWHJicoKvlFcc0AGzvHCFyew.

Deliverables:

• Monthly progress reports and final report on quality of non-formal education programs and support provided to quality development according to UNICEF Guidelines for non-formal education. These reports to reflect the collaboration, cooperation and strategizing between UNICEF Education Section, the consultant, the SCRM, education institutions, migrant children and parents themselves.

Timeframe: June – December 2018 (30 days)

Task 2: Support on-line collaboration and horizontal exchange between facilitators engaged in non-formal education

Activities:

1. Adapt, share working materials and facilitate horizontal learning between facilitators of non- formal education through web-site Refugee and Migrant Education in Serbia https://remis.rs/en/ and other relevant global resources (such as the Global Digital Library https://home.digitallibrary.io/about/)
2. Regularly update content of the web-site Remis Deliverables: On-line available materials for facilitators of non-formal education and in relevant languages to the context as much as possible.

Timeframe: June – December 2018 (15 days)

Knowledge/Expertise/Skills required:

• University degree in psychology, pedagogy, education or another related field
• More than 5 years of professional experience in education
• Experience in education in emergency, education of migrant and refugee children and youth and other vulnerable groups
• Experience in non-formal education and knowledge of Serbian education system
• Knowledge in using ICT in learning
• Demonstrated flexibility and creativity in planning and problem solving
• Excellent oral and written Serbian and English skills
• Command of either Arabic or Farsi would be an asset
• Ability to work effectively with an ethnically diverse team in a sensitive environment
• Sound judgement is required in follow-up on requests; high degree of accuracy is important
• Ability to meet tight deadlines through excellent time management, organization and multitasking skills

Deadline for applications: 29.05.2018.