Call for Expression of Interest – Course Development and Delivery for Agricultural Mechanization Trainers

Call for Expression of Interest – Specialist Contractor

Purpose     

Under Specific Objective 2 of the project, the primary objective of this consulting assignment is to develop and thereafter deliver an appropriate course for trainers in the Agricultural Mechanization sector. The training is required to ensure effective training delivery by Trainers in the Agricultural Mechanization Centre of Vocational Excellence (CoVE).

1. Background and context about the project

The British Council provides management and technical leadership of complex, multi-stakeholder programmes across the globe, with an intimate understanding of local context through our long-standing presence on the ground, contributing to the achievement of positive change, particularly for young people.

Working in Malawi since 1974, we form trusted partnerships that shape new approaches by tackling profound challenges and ensuring positive solutions for sustainable change, informed by global best practice but led by Malawi’s communities. This includes connecting students, educators, policymakers, academics, creatives, and entrepreneurs, with a focus on increasing opportunities for youth: supporting young people and the systems that service them to improve education, qualifications and skills.

Skills development with an emphasis on TEVET is the main priority for our operations in Malawi, equipping young people with the support they need to create more resilient pathways to better life prospects, and more broadly helping to tackle Malawi’s unemployment challenge.

The TEVET system in Malawi has faced challenges over a number of years relating to funding, governance and the institutional strength. The overall governance and management of the TEVET sector remains challenging. Efforts to improve on the quality of governance of TEVET regulatory functions, decentralisation approaches, promotion of policy dialogue among stakeholders, labour market information system have not materialised; collaboration between TEVET providers and the private sector is minimal. TEVET training systems are biased against women and students with disabilities.

Enabling broad support for policy review, wider TEVET reform, capacity building throughout the system, a shared understanding and collective ownership of change that will ensure better overall management, planning, co-ordination and effective functioning of the sector is essential.

The Government of Malawi (GoM), with the support of various International Development Partners have embarked upon initiatives and projects to improve the governance, quality and relevance of TEVET. One of the largest such projects is the EU funded Zantchito Skills for Jobs project, which aims at improving the employability and self-employment opportunities of young Technical Entrepreneurial and Vocational Education and Training (TEVET) graduates and entrepreneurs, including a focus on women. The main counterpart is the Ministry of Labour. This programme is in line with Malawi’s Vision 2063, the overarching plan for the country’s long-term development goal of attaining an inclusively wealthy and self-reliant industrialised upper middle-income status by 2063, recognises quality TEVET as essential for developing a globally competitive and highly motivated human resource that will drive achievement of the Vision.

The Technical Assistance (TA) project in component 1 is worth EUR 5,700,000 and delivered by the British Council, the following table provides more information about the project.

 Scope of the project/programme

2. About the role of the specialist contractor

 3. Scope of Services

The British Council under the Zantchito Skills for Jobs Project intends to engage a local expert in the Agricultural Mechanization and the expert is expected to have experience in delivering successful trainer of trainers trainings and will be responsible for developing and delivering a comprehensive course in agricultural mechanisation for the trainers at the COVE and its network partner institutions and to help them to become very competent in their roles by equipping the trainers with necessary knowledge and skills in agricultural mechanisation; specifically, the expert will:

a. Design the course and produce a course outline for Training of the Trainers (TOT) in the Agricultural Mechanization COVE.

• Review the training needs identified for trainers in CoVE and those in Network Partner Institutions and make recommendations if necessary.
• Design an appropriate course and produce a course outline including the course objectives, learning outcomes, course content, training manuals, methods of instruction and methods of assessment.

b. Develop the content for the training of Trainers in the COVE and Network Partner Institutions.

• Develop the content to be delivered to meet the course objectives.
• Prepare course materials/training manuals required to deliver the training to the Trainers.
• Prepare the Course delivery instructions to be used during course delivery.
• Pilot test the course to confirm its robustness and make corrections where necessary.
• Develop a tool for assessing the performance of each participant to the Trainers’ training.
• Develop a training evaluation tool to evaluate the course upon completion.
• Utilise a report format to be given when compiling a report on the entire assignment.

c. Deliver training designed to address training needs of Trainers in COVE.

• Prepare an appropriate training programme to be followed during course delivery.
• Deliver the training materials according to the proposed programme.
• Assess the performance of each participant to the agricultural mechanisation Trainers’ training as the course is delivered.

d. Undertake an evaluation of the training at the end of course delivery.

• Using the training evaluation tool developed, obtain feedback from the participants about the course just delivered and the extent of the skills and knowledge transfer during course delivery.

e. Prepare and submit a training report.

• Using the report format provided, submit a detailed report on the course conducted to include your assessment of the performance of each participant to the course and participants’ evaluation of the course.

4. Deliverables

The Expert will be responsible for delivering the following:

a. A brief Inception Report: Prepare and submit a report outlining the proposed methodology, a course design work plan, and a course delivery programme and plan within two weeks of contract signing to include Tractor Operations and Maintenance; and Earth Moving Equipment Operations and Maintenance

b. Draft Course design: Submit a draft course design and course content including training manuals, a proposed course delivery programme and course delivery instructions for approval.

c. Course delivery: Deliver the training.

 d. Final Report: A report on the course design and course delivery submitted to the Zantchito Technical Assistance Project.

5. Timeline

The expert will perform these tasks over 2 phases. The first phase is expected to start by 18^th December 2024 and will be specifically for course design. The second phase will focus on course delivery and date of commencement will be determined after the successful completion of the first phase.

The expert will work up to 30 working days and the assignment will be delivered over a duration of up to 1 month.

Subject to any changes notified to potential suppliers by the British Council in accordance with the contractual conditions, the intended timescales and key milestones applicable to this assignment are:

6. Fees & expenses

Interested bidders who meet the essential qualifications and experience as set under clause 8 of this announcement should submit the following documents regarding their commercial rate:

• Financial proposal

• Professional fees which should detail total daily rate in Malawi Kwacha and please note that fees will be paid using the British Council payment terms (the standard). Additionally, travel related costs if needed it will be either covered by the British Council or reimbursed against actual receipts in line with British Council travel policy.
• IMPORTANT NOTE: The British Council have an internal daily rate limit, if the winning bidder/consultant offered rate exceeds this internal limit, they will be requested to revise it to align with our internal ceiling rate. Failure to do so will result in our inability to proceed with the bidder and will reject the proposal in full, moving to the second-highest ranked bidder/consultant.

7. Reporting and communication

The expert will work under the supervision of the Deputy Team Leader of the Zantchito technical Assistance project. Key dates for meetings and report submission will be outlined in the Inception report.

8. Mandatory Minimum Requirements (Qualifications and experience)

The expert should possess the following minimum expertise and qualifications:

• Relevant bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience in a subject relevant to the assignment (TVET, Mechanical Engineering, Agricultural (Crops, Agronomy, Agriculture Engineering, General Agriculture).
• Over 10 years’ experience of working in the Agricultural Mechanization sector and demonstrate a deep understanding of the sector, showcasing comprehensive knowledge of its unique challenges, current industry best practices and innovative approaches and opportunities
• Proven track record of experience in developing training materials/manuals and conducting effective training sessions and physical field demonstrations with at least 3 similar work references
• Significant experience of working with Plant Operators and Plant maintenance personnel
• Experience in monitoring and scheduling Planned and Preventative Maintenance of Agricultural Machinery
• Strong training, coaching, mentoring and facilitation skills
• Excellent written and spoken English
• Strong communication and report-writing skills
• If the consultant chooses to use the services of a team of experts in the delivery of this assignment, the roles of each expert should be clearly explained, and the cost of their involvement properly justified.

9. Procedure for submission of EOI

• Interested bidders must submit their bids which should include all the submission requirements
  Cover letter, copies of qualifications, copy of national identification card or passport, copy of tax compliance certificate/Tax Clearance Certificate
• Technical proposal
  
  • Proposed methodology and expert’s understanding of the ToR
  • Proposed work plan for the 30 day-schedule of activities with specific timelines as per the proposed start and end dates provided in this ToR
  • Detailed curriculum vitae(s)/expert profile plus list of all similar assignments with contacts of the clients, work samples and at least three professional references from previous recent clients
  • Sample executive summary reports for similar assignments
• Financial proposal
  
  • Professional fees which should detail total daily rate in Malawi Kwacha plus a insert the British Council payment terms (the standard)
  • Travel related costs if needed will be covered by British Council

 Send the above Application to  Subsahara.Procurement@britishcouncil.org  with the subject of the email as Short-term National Expert – Course Development  and Delivery for Agricultural Mechanization Trainers by Thursday , 12^th December 2024 at 11:59 pm CAT.

If you have any clarification requests please share it with us through the following email  Subsahara.Procurement@britishcouncil.org before 5^th December, 2024 (Deadline date of the clarification requests) please indicate in the subject of your email the following (Short-term National Expert – Course Development  and Delivery for Agricultural Mechanization Trainers)

10. Criteria for evaluation

Supplier responses were assessed by the Evaluation Team using the following criteria and weightings.

To download the TOR use: 1. Call for Expression of Interests_Agricultural Mechanisation _27 – 11 – 2024 (002)-CDAPPROVED BUT CORRECTED-27-11-24