Expression of Interest JSTE Analysis of IPNET Training System

General information

 Brief information on the project

The project "Improving the Quality and Attractiveness of Vocational Education and Training in Lebanon" aims to increasingly align vocational education and training in sectors with sustainable employment potentials with the needs of the Lebanese economy.

Emphasis is placed on improving the partnership between vocational training institutions and the private sector, strengthening human resource capacity in vocational training institutions, and developing practice-oriented training programs. The target groups of the project are young people, unemployed and underemployed adults who want to improve their employment prospects through qualifications relevant to the labor market.

The implementing partner is the Directorate General for Vocational and Technical Education (DGVTE), which lacks capacity at various levels to involve the private sector in vocational education and training. This concerns curriculum development, teacher training and the expansion of practical elements in teaching. The project's advisory approach includes establishing and advising coordination bodies with representatives of the state vocational training sector and company representatives at the macro and steering levels, piloting cooperation models between vocational training institutions and the private sector, systematic human resources development in public vocational training institutions and testing competency-based, modularized training programs.

Context

For more than two years, the economic situation in Lebanon has been affected severely by several developments, adding to the scope of the current crisis: First the economic and financial crisis, followed by the spread of COVID-19, and lastly the explosion at the Port of Beirut in August 2020.

Already since 2011, the country had experienced a steady decline of its GDP growth, going from 2.8% in 2011 to only 0.8% in 2017 and by the beginning of 2020, the crisis had reached the Lebanese Central Bank, leading the country’s financial system to the brink of collapse. Currently, the country is running out of its foreign currency reserves to pay for its imports. The most important sectors such as tourism, the private sector, real estate and construction were severely impacted by the crisis.

Despite the resilience of its people, the unprecedented economic crisis in Lebanon is pushing the population to a breaking point. It is the accumulation of crises that is driving an ever-greater number of Lebanese into absolute poverty. As a reaction to the increasing unemployment, many qualified workers have tried to leave the country, leading to an important ‘brain drain’.

The emigration of educated, middle class, and high-skilled workers has been a natural consequence of Lebanon’s adverse business climate for decades, particularly among recent university graduates and the youth. The current crisis will accelerate this trend.

Until the civil war, the vocational training system was well organized by regional standards: Skilled workers were trained with good practical skills, and the reputation of TVET among the population was comparatively high. After the end of the war, this tradition was not continued. Today, the vocational training system is limited almost exclusively to school-based training in the French tradition, with little practical training.

The labor market orientation of national vocational education and training is low which manifests itself in the fact that graduates generally do not work in the occupations for which they were trained, often enter the informal sector or even remain unemployed for a long time after graduation. In addition, there are insufficient placement services. Therefore, Lebanese companies are hardly able to meet their demand for suitably trained skilled workers.

The opportunities and challenges regarding the vocational training system are recognized on the Lebanese side. Thus, in June 2018, the Prime Minister officially approved a National Strategic Framework for Vocational Education and Training 2018-2022. In this strategic framework, eight priorities were formulated (known as "Building Blocks"), including Building Block 2 "Improving the human resources management system as a key factor for quality of vocational education and training. This is due to the fact, that vocational training institutions lack qualified educational personnel with sufficient practical, didactic and methodological skills. Only a few teachers have professional experience outside the vocational training institutions and the Lebanese Teacher Training Institute (Institut Pédagogique National pour L'Enseignement Technique, IPNET) is currently not providing the vocational education system with highly qualified teachers.

Consequently, at the meso level the project aims to strengthen institutional capacities. The underlying impact hypothesis is that the through the strengthened personnel capacities at the supported TVET schools and institutes as well as cooperating enterprises - in particular that of the teaching staff and in-company tutors/instructors  - will improve the quality of training and lead to better qualified graduates.

Background

As the project aims at improving the regulations related to the recruitment of vocational school teachers on the basis of defined qualification requirements and the development and introduction of performance-based incentive instruments for vocational school teachers, which should lead to an improvement in the quality of teaching.

Enabler will be further training provided for teaching and management staff at the participating pilot vocational training institutes.

Outline of the mission

In order to decide where pedagogical further education measures for TVET teachers are to be docked, it seems reasonable to illuminate the capacities of the institutes (IPNETs) intended for this purpose.

The specific objectives under this assignment are to:

• to complete a comprehensive literature review, followed by an overview of local legal framework and existing regulations, comprehensive desk-research and secondary analysis of existing raw data and relevant statistics that would serve as information base on the (theoretical) principles of paedogical trainings for TVET teachers in Lebanon
• to design the methodology and the tools for data collection from the key stakeholders (IPNET management, IPNET personnel, permanent & contractual tVET teachers)
• to collect and analyze the data collected (incl. quality control of survey) among key stakeholders with the purpose of exploring the current state, issues and outcomes of paedagogical trainings of TVET teachers

The analysis shall seek to explore to what extent Lebanon’s existing strategies and their implementation with regards to recruitment and continuous professional development of TVET teachers with regards to pedagogy is effective and well-justified including in reference to advanced international theory and practice.

Methodology

The study methodology shall follow a mixed-methods approach combining quantitative and qualitative methods of data collection to obtain rich insights, address all the objectives of the assignment. The detailed methodology allowing for collection of all required information with sampling strategy, study instruments and analytical approach should be developed by the expert and submitted to QuA-VET for approval and quality assurance.

The analysis of shall follow a comprehensive two-stage approach:

1. Document review
   1. to identify what are the regulations and
   2. current practices with regards to TVET teacher continuous professional development with regards to pedadogy.
2. Survey and in-depth interviews with a representation of IPNET managers and in-service teachers to identify TVET teacher to identify what are the regulations and current practices with regards to TVET teacher continuous professional development with regards to pedadogy.

• Existence of trainings offered through IPNETs
• Organisation of pedagogy trainings offered through IPNETs
• Profile of trainers offering these trainings
• No. and subject of courses offered in the last 5 years
• No. and type of attendees in the last 5 years

GIZ shall hire the contractor for the anticipated contract term,

from 01/07/2022 to 15/09/2022.

The contractor shall provide the following services clustered in 3 steps. After successful quality check of the previous step by QuA-VET, the contractor can start to initiate the work on the next step.

1st step:

• Prepare and document the mission by:

• Critically examiniming of relevant project documentation.
• Organising and conduct structured meetings with Project stakeholders.
• Conduct a desk research to identify what are the regulations and current practices with regards to TVET teacher continuous professional development with regards to pedadogy

2nd step:

• Develop methodology, instruments and reaching out to participants
• Ensure pretesting and finalization of the instruments (online survery, qualitative interviews) based on the methodology developed
• Conducting interview meetings (can be in presence or online) with at least 1 representative of the management of each IPNET (4)
• Conduct online survey with at least 10 IPNET staff (from all IPNET branches together) who have given and at least 20 teachers, who have received trainings in pedagogy by IPNET in the last 5 years

3rd step:

• Process survey and interview raw data
• Draft the analysis on practices and level of pedagogical further trainings for Lebanese TVET teachers (between min. 10 pages; max 20 pages) in English
• Presenting findings to DGVTE management

General:

• Inform and regularly consult the staff of the project.
• Carry on all activities necessary for the accomplishment of the required outputs / results and be flexible to any arising task that will serve the purpose of the missionWrite end of mission report and provide the required administrative deliverables.
• Be accessible after the short-term mission for follow-up discussions.

Outputs/Results

The outputs / results requested to the Expert are:

• Analysis (between min. 10 pages; max 20 pages) in English on
  • practices to plan and deliver pedagogical further trainings,
  • course structure and subjects of the offered pedagogical further trainings,
  • quality of pedagogical further trainings IPNET

for Lebanese TVET teachers  by IPNET over the last 5 years

• Ppt. on findings
• Meeting schedule for interviews with key stakeholders
• Survey design
• Catalogue of interview questions for narrative and quantitative interviews
• Minutes of meetings of interviews and meetings
• List of secondary literature and list of references

Administrative Deliverables:

• A comprehensive end of mission’s report submitted to project team for revision and approval tentatively following the structure:

• Scope and objectives of the mission
• Approach adopted for conducting the mission
• List of outputs produced during the mission (including meetings and people met)
• Description of the outputs produced during the mission
• Problems and challenges encountered during the mission
• Recommendations for the improvement of project implementation

Qualifications of proposed staff:

Due to a possible conflict of interest, the expert must not be in any employee relationship with IPNET.

General qualifications

Education: University degree (bachelor’s) in pedagogy, social sciences, education management or education

Professional experience:

• At least 7 years of professional experience in the education sector
• At least 5 years of professional experience in adult training

Specific Qualification:

• Extensive experience in designing research projects, studies, evaluations and surveys, data analysis and report writing (proof of at least 2 research projects in the education field)
• Experience in qualitative interviewing
• Experience in the region/knowledge of the country

At least 2 years working experience in the MENA region (minimum requirement)

​​​​​​​ Language skills - business fluency in:

Business fluency in English and Arabic (minimum requirement)