DEADLINE EXTENDED: August 16, 2019
The Roma Education Fund (REF) is looking for trainers (natural persons or legal entities) whose responsibility will be to develop and deliver training and mentoring for kindergarten staff working with Roma children in five countries. The country trainings will be organized within the framework of the regional project “Increased Education Opportunities for Roma Students and Roma Youth in Western Balkans and Turkey”, funded by European Union and Roma Education Fund.
The project’s component for early childhood development (ECD) is running in North Macedonia, Kosovo*, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Turkey in different Roma communities and social context. Accordingly, the main objective of the assignment is to increase the quality of preschool education by providing professional support to staff members working with Roma children. The specific needs of the staff members will be determined by a needs assessment. Following this training modules will be developed and applied through trainings in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, North Macedonia and Turkey. Modules will need to be adjusted to local context and needs of the kindergarten staff.
Project background:
The project “Increased education opportunities for Roma students and Roma youth in Western Balkans and Turkey” is aiming to reduce the Roma/Non-Roma gap in participation to and completion of quality education, to improve Roma students’ transition between education and employment, and promote durable systemic change and de-segregation within education systems in the Western Balkans and Turkey. The actions of the project strive to:
- Promote equal participation in quality education for Roma children and youth at all educational levels (pre-school, primary, secondary, university and vocational), and to improve educational outcomes (including preventing school drop-out) with a special focus on reducing the wide gap between male and female education levels;
- Improve Roma youth employability, with a particular focus on gender-sensitive measures in employability, and smooth transition between end of studies and employment market;
- Promote desegregation and systemic durable change for Roma in the education sector by producing a change of attitude towards Roma and Roma communities; by strengthening the capacities of relevant central and local institutions through regional exchange of experiences; and by using Roma role models as actors of change.
The primary target group of the project includes up to 4,700 disadvantaged Roma children and their parents in the seven target countries: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey (project’s countries).
Project’s Activities are:
- Expanding access to quality Early Childhood Education/ECD services;
- Expanding access to quality primary school education;
- Increasing performance and employability of Roma secondary school students;
- Increasing access and participation of Roma students in tertiary education and transition to labor market;
- Contributing to policy development and regional knowledge exchange and communication.
Responsibilities and Tasks:
- To conduct needs assessment of the kindergarten staff and Roma teachers/assistants,
- Based on the guidance from the Roma Education Fund, design training material either for each country or a training framework depending on the needs assessment results;
- To deliver country trainings for the project kindergartens in North Macedonia, Albania, Bosnia and Hercegovina, Kosovo and Turkey (2 training days per country)
- To deliver post-training mentoring support for the kindergarten staff (in average 2 days mentoring support per country)
- To asses and adjust the training modules after implementation, if needed.
Required Experience:
- The candidate has worked successfully on at least three assignments in the fields related to this call;
- Extended experience in preparing training packages and delivering trainings in the filed of early childhood development with focus on kindergarten staff;
- Working experience with Roma communities combined with an understanding of the educational challenges Roma children face;
Skills required:
- In-depth knowledge and understanding of the social context in the project’s countries;
- Familiarity with educational programs and methodologies in the specific area of intervention i.e. early childhood education;
- Ability to communicate ideas in a manner conducive to their practical application;
- Excellent organizational, analytical, communication and interpersonal skills;
- Fluency in written and spoken English, other languages spoken in the target countries;
Duration of the engagement: July 2019 – June 2020
The first training is expected to be implemented in the Autumn of 2019, with mentoring activities for each kindergarten to follow.
Application Process
Please send your application to the following email address: recruitment@romaeducationfund.org and indicate in the subject line –training for kindergarten staff.
Candidates who submitted their applications previously do not need to re-apply.
List of documents to be submitted:
- Description of your experiences/ organization;
- Proposed methodology and timetable including the main milestones;
- CVs of the proposed consultants
- Activity based financial offer, which shall contain the gross amount of the fee per day, in EUR
Application must be made in English language and must be submitted at the latest by 28 June 2019.
DEADLINE EXTENDED: August 16, 2019
Networks and consortium of organizations operating in the project countries are particularly encouraged to apply as well as Roma, Roma Education Fund scholarship recipients and female candidates are particularly encouraged to apply.
Call For Developing And Delivering Training For Kindergarten Staff available to download here
*This designation is without prejudice to positions on status, and is in line with UNSCR 1244/1999 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo declaration of independence.
