Eco system-based market scan to explore opportunities for alternative learning pathway or employment for out of school adolescent and youth.

 

 

Title of the assignment

Eco system-based market scan to explore opportunities for alternative learning pathway or employment for out of school adolescent and youth.

Purpose

The overall purpose of this study is to identify the most vulnerable adolescent and young people with issues and opportunities  (e.g. out of school, early married, widow/separated); to understand the market demands, needs and opportunities (e.g. training providers, industry based/commercial training, trainers/mentors/ Master Craft Person-MCP); and to explore the eco system[1] for a vibrant support for alternative learning pathways to bring them into learning ladder or link them with further education or employment opportunities.

Location

07 districts - Barishal, Bhola, Mymensingh, Gazipur, Dhaka, Nararyanganj and Chattogram. The study will explore the situation of most populated areas and most disadvantaged locations from these 07 districts.

Field visits will be required for data collection and survey and the number of visits will be proposed based on the methodology of the research.

Estimated Duration

90 working days/16 weeks over the period of 04 months after commencement of the contract. (October-December 2022)

1. Background

Equitable access to education for all children and adolescents in Bangladesh is a persistent challenge. Certain marginalized groups of children continue to experience a higher degree of educational exclusion. Those children most likely to remain out-of-school or who are at risk of dropping out are from the lowest wealth quintile, are adolescent girls, children with disabilities, children from ethnic minority communities and children living in hard-to-reach areas or special pockets of disadvantage such as urban slums, tea gardens, Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) regions, coastal belts, low-lying areas and wetlands. Children with functional difficulties/disabilities are seven times more likely to drop out of school. (MICS 2019)

According to the Bangladesh Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) 2019, about 13.1 per cent lower secondary school-age children are out-of-school (18.1 per cent boys, 8.1 per cent girls) , while 31.5 percent of upper secondary school-age children are out -of-school (36.5 percent boys and 26.1 percent girls). Geographically, the out-of-school children are spread across the country, with a higher concentration in areas with a prevalence of high intra-division and intra-district disparities including Mymensingh, Chattogram, Sylhet and Dhaka.

Apart from participation in education, access to skills training for adolescents and young people is also a concern. Girls’ participation in skills training is extremely low (at 25 per cent) and alignment with the rapidly changing market demand is weak.[2] The proportion of youth (15-24 years) who are not in education, employment or training is 32 per cent with girls significantly less involved (male at 9.8 per cent, female at 44.6 per cent).[3]

Considering these facts, the educational rights is seriously deprived. Currently there are very limited options to bring them back into education ladders because the formal education system isn’t flexible for adolescent and youth. Moreover, the adolescent and youth don’t find formal education is too relevant for them. According to a report by the Just Jobs Network, 85 per cent of workers are using skills they did not learn in schools and 60 per cent of students indicated that schools are not providing enough inputs for scientific education, information, and communication technology (ICT) and communication skills. Less than 10 per cent of students indicated that their schools, formally or informally, provide the skills they think are useful in finding a good job and performing tasks in a workplace. More than 70 per cent said schools are not providing career counselling and 80 per cent said they are not addressing entrepreneurship.[4]

Aannually, more than 2 million young people are entering the work force in the country where informal economy is covering more than 80% of the national economy. But this huge proportion of most vulnerable out of school adolescent group, especially girls and young women have very limited opportunities to access or participate in income generating activities because of inadequate competencies and skills. It makes the situation worse.

This big number of adolescent and youth who are either out of education or at risk of out of formal education, we need to create an alternative learning pathway (ALP) to fully utilize the opportunity from demographic dividend. Since 2012, UNICEF with support from different national and international NGOs are working to develop an innovative and alternate ALP to bring them back to learning ladders and link them with further education or employment.

Alternative Learning Programme (ALP) is an alternative pathway for the most disadvantaged and vulnerable out of school adolescents that linking them with further education and employment opportunity. Since 2012 UNICEF through multiple approach and project is trying to sharpen an alternative learning model to make it more diversified, for different profile of young people, to make it more effective with reviewing the curriculum, skills and training and make it scalable working with the ecosystem. UNICEF is now trying to take this model further with an eco-system-based approach to explore the innovative alternative learning pathway for the most disadvantaged group which has strong linkage to create further opportunity for education or employment, which will be supported by the enabling eco system for skilling and employment. Therefore, UNICEF has decided to conduct a comprehensive survey in particular locations on the full eco support system, including the target beneficiaries, the demand and supply, challenges, and opportunities.

 

2. Objectives, Purpose and Expected Results

The overall purpose of this study is to identify the most disadvantaged adolescent and young people with their challenges and opportunities; explore the market opportunities, demand, service providers or skilling opportunities; and eco support system for comprehensive vibrant support for alternative learning pathway to create alternative learning opportunity or employment for the drop out adolescent and youth. Based on this study report, different approaches will be adapted to develop evidence based standard packages for alternative learning program.  The report intends to design risk informative alternative learning programme for drop out adolescent and youth especially for 07 targeted districts (Barishal, Bhola, Mymensingh, Gazipur, Dhaka, Nararyanganj and Chattogram), which will create the avenue for evidence based advocacy with government relevant ministries for scaling up alternative learning programme across the country for all drop out adolescent and youth.

Specific Objectives:

The specific objectives of this market scan study include the following:

• To explore the eco based support system for skill, which including but not limited to the following

• Market needs and demands for both formal and informal sector
• Government and private actors for training, financial support, apprenticeship, internship etc.
• Financial institutions and support for enterprise development
• Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), commercial factories, agro based industries
• Opportunities of involvement of local government. 

• To identify the most disadvantaged target beneficiaries, which including but not limited to the following

• School drop-out
• Not in Education, Employment or Training -NEET
• Deprivation for geographical disparity and gender disparity
• Climate change vulnerable
• Challenge and norms
• Issues, concern, norms, barriers for skilling
• Estimate the skilled and unskilled adolescent and young people, especially adolescent girls and young women.

• To identify the skilling opportunities, which including but not limited to the following

• Training centers and training providers (public, private, industrial, commercial)
• Entrepreneurship opportunities
• Apprenticeship opportunities
• Internship opportunities

• To explore any other local dynamics and opportunities for alternative learning programme, skilling, and employment programme through secondary literature.  

Expected Results:

This study report will give a comprehensive picture of the most disadvantage adolescent and youth of the particular locations detailing their dynamics, challenges and opportunities for skill programme; detail assessment about the existing eco-based support system including government and private sector both formal and informal sector; skilling opportunities with detail mapping on the center-based training, entrepreneurship, informal apprenticeship and internship opportunities. The report also aims to include detail analysis on local dynamics and opportunities for skill programme. The study findings and recommendation must be specific to develop evidence-based models will be adapted and implemented to ensure a gender responsive environment alternative education, skills development, and employability.

3. Description of Assignment

Scope:

This study will deep dive into the skill ecosystem; support system for policy assurance and monitoring comprising government, non-government, private sector and communities, market demand for both formal and informal trades, barriers and opportunities for different modalities, list of most marginalized young girl and women, identify the available facilities for center-based skills training and apprenticeship, mapping of SMEs, commercial factories and agro-based industries  and scope of financial inclusion. This study will administer in 07 districts of Bangladesh, these districts are Barishal, Bhola, Mymensingh, Gazipur, Dhaka, Nararyanganj and Chattogram. The study will cover most populated areas and most disadvantaged locations from these 07 districts.

Methodology:

The study will include a mixed method including both qualitative and quantitative design for primary data collection. It will be initiated with proper desk review and analysis of available secondary data. The bidding agencies are requested to come up with a proposed mixed method approaches considering a strong balance between “the numbers and explanations” to answer all six components of ‘Ecosystem Market Scan’ as mentioned in the table below. The agency should propose suitable research design; sampling framework; data collection approaches, quality assurance mechanism including ethical considerations, risk and the anticipated limitations of the study.

These components are – Policy, Finance, Culture, Supports, Human Capital and Markets. The examples for the key areas against each component are mentioned below, but not limited to this list - 

Component

Example of key areas

Culture

• Social norms against young girl and woman.
• Acceptance of risk, mistakes and failure within community and family members.
• Mindset of community regarding financial independency of young girl and woman.
• Social acceptance of entrepreneurship.
• Ambition and drive  of young girl and woman.

Support system

• Government and non-government intuitions (e.g. training center, apprenticeship center).
• Transportation and logistic.
• Backward and forward linkage.
• Investors.
• Regulatory agencies.
• Technical support and guidance for business plan development, entrepreneurship training and job placement.

Human Capital

• Estimation of skilled and unskilled young girl and woman.
• Interest to be entrepreneur.
• Diversity among the marginalized young girl and woman
• Literacy and foundational skills

Market

• Demand and supply
• Backward and forward linkage
• Distribution channels
• Self-help group/entrepreneurs’ network

Policy

• legitimacy and entrepreneurship strategy from the government.

Status of training institutions, financial support, regulatory and research initiatives from the government and private sector.

Finance

• Access to financial institutions (both government and private sector)
• Startup kits/seed funding for small business or enterprise development
• Financial literacy of young girl and woman
• Micro-credit with minimum interest for small business or enterprise development
• Challenges for young girl and woman to financial inclusion/access

Ethical and other considerations: This research will be held to the highest standards employed by UNICEF. This means, the agency will abide by the following:

1. UNICEF Procedure for Ethical Standards in Research, Evaluation, Data Collection and Analysis
2. UNICEF Strategic Guidance Note on Institutionalizing Ethical Practice for UNICEF Research

The agency is expected to explain ethical considerations for the assessment, specifically spelling out how these above guidelines will be followed/met. Any specific ethical considerations or strategies necessary to prevent or avoid COVID-19 infection and spread should be addressed and detailed in the proposal. Further, ethical clearance must be obtained during the inception period, before any data collection with human subjects begins. The ethical clearance letter should be attached in the annexure of the final report. All data collected through this research as well as reports and dissemination materials are the intellectual properties of UNICEF and shall not be used for purposes other than those approved by the registered Institutional Review Board during the ethical clearance.

Additionally, the research should be human rights-based (including child rights) and gender sensitive. All applicable data will be disaggregated by sex, age, and ability level.

 

4. Deliverables

Comprehensive ‘Skill Ecosystem Market Scan Report’ for both formal and informal sector. The report must include the below components for each geographic location (07 districts)

• The most disadvantaged target beneficiaries (15-24 years) with their local dynamics, challenges and opportunities, demand for skills training, mapping of skilled and unskilled adolescent and youth population.
• The eco-based support system, including government and private sector engagement for monitoring; financial inclusion, business plan development, back to learning ladder, job or employment opportunities  and support the intervention,
• The skilling opportunities including list of training centers and training providers (public, private, industrial, commercial), SMEs, commercial factories and agro-based industries, entrepreneurship, apprenticeship and internship opportunities.
• Local dynamics and opportunities for alternative learning programme, skilling, and employment programme.
• Recommendation of contextualised ALP model considering the dynamic of geography and support system

5. Reporting requirements

An overarching timeline with tasks is included below. The research agency should prepare a detailed implementation plan as part of the inception stage.

 

1

Deliverable

Items covered/Included

Time frame

Inception phase

• Inception meeting
• Review of documents
• Consultation with key stakeholders
• Conceptual framework and methodology
• Approval from ethical review

 

Week 1- 3

2

Tools finalization

• Tools development and field testing
• Refining of data collection tools
• Joint discussion with UNICEF on final tools

 

Week 4

3

Data collection[5]

• Refining of data collection tools
• (Re-)Training of data collectors
• Data collection and documents/data review
• Data analysis and report writing
• Presentation to implementation team

 

Week 5-9

4

Final report

• Draft report submission for review comments
• Incorporate review comments and finalize report
• Final report submission to UNICEF
• Debrief and presentation

 

 

Week 10-16

 

 

 

Examples of potential types of reports are:

• Table of contents, list of annexes/figures/tables, etc.
• List of Acronyms
• Executive Summary (2 – 5 pages)
• Introduction & Background
• Methodology
• Limitations
• Ethical Considerations
• Results & Discussion
• Recommendation
• Conclusion
• Annexes with all necessary lists and contact information

 

6. Payment Schedule

• 25% with submission and approval of inception report, including data collection tools.
• 40% with completion of data collection and submission of data set to UNICEF. 
• 35% with submission and approval of final report from UNICEF.

 

7. Qualification requirement of the company/institution/organization

The assignment is expected to be conducted by an institution with experience in conducting similar assessments/study. The team should comprise at least a team leader with strong implementation research background and a technical expert on employability and skills, entrepreneurship ecosystem market scan.

7a. Qualification requirement of the team

• Agency and members of the team, including the leader, to have expertise and proven substantial experience of at least 10 years in research and monitoring and evaluation in education and skills relevant to development areas

 

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