Trainer – UN Youth Volunteers Assignment Preparation Training (Pool Of Trainers)

Background

The United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme is the UN organization that contributes to peace and development through volunteerism worldwide. Volunteerism is a powerful means of engaging people in tackling development challenges, and it can transform the pace and nature of development. Volunteerism benefits both society at large and the individual volunteer by strengthening trust, solidarity and reciprocity among citizens, and by purposefully creating opportunities for participation. UNV contributes to peace and development by advocating for recognition of volunteers, working with partners to integrate volunteerism into development programming, and mobilizing an increasing number and diversity of volunteers, including experienced UNV volunteers, throughout the world. UNV embraces volunteerism as universal and inclusive, and recognizes volunteerism in its diversity, as well as the values that sustain it: free will, commitment, engagement and solidarity.

In 2013, UNV developed a global Youth Volunteer Programme.  The programme aims to facilitate the engagement of youth in global peace and sustainable human development through volunteerism, bringing the voice of youth into the development discourse and helping young people to realize their full social, economic and human potential.  In the context of this programme, in 2014 the UN Youth Volunteer modality was established, giving young people aged 18 to 29, with little or no professional experience, the opportunity to serve for up to two years as UN Youth Volunteers with UN agencies in the field.

UN Youth Volunteer Learning

Learning and development are a central part of UN Youth Volunteer assignments. Before, during and after the service in the field, UN Youth Volunteers should have diverse opportunities for learning and development.  These opportunities would strengthen the volunteer’s skills and competences, improve quality of the assignment and keep the volunteer’s motivation high.  As such, in addition to UNV’s standard pre-assignment briefing, each UN Youth Volunteer, national or international, will need to undergo a group, face-to-face assignment preparation training, to take place just before or in the beginning of the assignment.

A standard curriculum for the UN Youth Volunteer Assignment Preparation Training (APT) has already been developed and is available at this link: http://goo.gl/9ODblO.  The standard curriculum includes six modules (Introduction to the UN Youth Volunteer programme; Youth Participation and Volunteerism; Identity and Inclusion; Living and Working in a cross-cultural environment; Learning, personal and professional development; Peer Support and Knowledge Sharing), for which learning objectives are set and methodology proposed.  The curriculum should be adapted to the context of the UN Youth Volunteer assignments.

Duties and Responsibilities

This Procurement Notices is for UNV to set up a Pool of Trainers, who can be deployed, as needed to deliver training in various locations where UN Youth Volunteers are recruited and/or deployed.  As such, UNV is looking for Trainers, able to deliver the training globally, based on the standard curriculum and in at least one of the official UN languages (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish) and additional languages such as Portuguese.  The Trainer should be able to adapt the content to local needs.

The Trainer(s) will work directly with the learning specialist for UN Youth Volunteers and the learning manager at the UNV Headquarters and liaise with the UNV Field Unit.  In some cases, a UN Youth Volunteer Coordinator will be recruited and the Trainer(s) should liaise with the Coordinators in addition to UNV personnel.

UN Youth Volunteers are recruited globally, to serve in their country, as national volunteers, or abroad, as international volunteers. The Trainer(s) is/are expected to deliver good quality, effective, pre-assignment training for UN Youth Volunteers, in line with the standard curriculum and adapted to the context of the assignments.

Training will be delivered to groups of UN Youth Volunteers (approximately 20 participants/training). A standard training course will be of five days, unless agreed otherwise, under specific circumstances. Depending on the recruitment timelines and location, the training course could take place in the country of recruitment, regionally or in the country of deployment.

In order to achieve the objective, we consider that the Trainer should: 

•  Work together with UNV to get a clear understanding of the expected training outcomes;
•  Have the flexibility to deliver training in various locations, at relatively short notice (minimum 3 weeks);
•  Use the content and methodology proposed in the existing UN Youth Volunteer Assignment Preparation Training Manual, adapting it to local contexts and needs;
• Deliver the standard face-to-face training to groups of volunteers, based on the existent curriculum and manual;  Evaluate training quality and short-term impact;
• If needed, develop specific tools that enable an efficient and effective delivery and assessment of the curriculum (including baseline information);
• Provide UNV with a brief report after each training course delivered and with a more comprehensive periodic report, in the event of multiple training courses being implemented in the same semester.

Expected Outputs/Deliverables 

Deliverable 1: Specific training design for each of the UN Youth Volunteer APT

• The design will be prepared based on the standard curriculum and proposed methodology, adapted to the specific context;
• It should be submitted at least two weeks before the planned training course and include: a brief description of the planned approach, preparation undergone, including detailed agenda, list of participants, and baseline information about the group to be trained.

Deliverable 2: UN Youth Volunteer APT group training delivery

•  UN Youth Volunteer APT group training should be delivered, as per the agreed design, in the required location. Each training course can be of up to five days, unless exceptionally agreed otherwise.

Deliverable 3: Reporting on the UN Youth Volunteer APT delivered

• A training report for each UN Youth Volunteer APT group training delivered should be submitted within three weeks after the completion of the training;
• It should include: an overview of the training delivered, including a brief description of the activities, the list of participants, the participants’ evaluation, suggestive photo/video material and any other relevant documentation.
• Additionally, all contractors having delivered more than three training courses over the period of six months will be required to submit a compiled report within a year from the first training delivered. These periodic reports should include: an analysis of the training evaluations filled in  by participants, estimated short and mid-term impact of the training on the volunteer assignment (based on UNV methodology) and recommendations for UNV in terms of UN Youth Volunteer Learning.

Location: Home-based and travel to UNV field locations, as required

Application Deadline: 13 February 15

Read more and apply here.