Young Africa (YA)

Deadline: 21 May 2021 (4pm)

About Young Africa (YA)

Founded in the Netherlands in 1998 Young African (YA) currently operates nine Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) centers in five countries as a confederation of independently and locally registered affiliated organizations. YA operates in 1 more country in partnership with 3 other organizations that are replicating the YA model. Each Affiliate operates TVET – Centre(s), youth (self-) employment programs and community activities. The Head office of YA is in Harare, Zimbabwe, with an office in The Netherlands. The YA confederation coordinates multiple projects (implemented through the nine centers) and project teams include members based at YA Head Office in Zimbabwe, at YA office in The Netherlands and at Affiliate offices in the respective countries of operation.

The vision of YA is a world of quality and shared word of equality where the power of young people is channeled to transform the world around them. The mission of YA is the integral development of disadvantaged youths aged 15 to 35 years with a special focus on young women and youths with disabilities. YA does this through imparting to youth skills of the hands to make them self-reliant, skills of the heart and mind to help them live with dignity and skills of the soul to help them live with a purpose.

Background

YA is implementing a YA-wide Quality Improvement Plan (2020-2021). Communications and Visibility is one of the key competence areas with capacity gaps identified for YA Affiliate Offices. Strengthening the capacities of YA Affiliates by enhancing their skills in “communicating for impact digital training has been prioritised as an intervention to close the identified gaps in the competence area. The capacity building initiative for “communicating for Impact, a digital training” would be targeting YA Affiliates communications focal persons and is planned to be done through a Training of Trainers (TOT) workshop. The Training of Trainers workshop is aimed at overcoming the current communication challenges faced by YA Affiliate team members. Some of the current challenges identified through the training needs analysis, research findings done by external consultants, and internal capacity assessments that need strengthening are as follows: Inefficient and insufficient communication flows from each affiliated Branch to Young Africa International; Always bridging the distance across all the countries where YA Affiliates work; Need to make communications a number one priority; Improving the quality of photos and videos produced at YA Affiliates; Not having suitably skilled, trained, qualified communications persons at Affiliate level; Responding to social contexts-Social media skills, branding and capabilities.

Objective of the consultancy

To develop training material in the form of a Trainer’s guide (manual) being guided by selected topics and additional input from YA International Communications Team; To increase the knowledge and awareness of (internal) communications and how to deliver high end quality products with the tools available among persons responsible for communications within YA branches”.

Topics to be covered

Focus will be on, but not exclusive to the following topics: Internal communications - Internal communication across each affiliate; External communications - Young Africa’s external communications, Making Communications FUN, What is content creation and storytelling? Success cases in the YA Affiliate field, How others do it: Young Africa Botswana to share their knowledge and experiences, Sharing experiences, challenges, lessons learnt and talking about the needed capacity to maximize efforts of communications across YA Confederation.

The training will be customised to YA Confederation needs and the consultant will work closely with YA Hub Communications team throughout the assignment.

Composition of trainees

Each of the Young Africa Affiliate Offices will select participants who are focal persons in communications to participate in the training. A total of 20+ participants are expected from the 5 Affiliates. The training will not exceed 30 participants.

The proposed process/scope of completing the assignment

The Consultancy is expected to undertake the following: Desk review, meetings with YA International Communications Team and development of a training plan; Development/prepare a training manual for the participants prior to the start of the training. The training documents should include pre/post-tests feedback forms to track learning processes; Conduct the training. The training will be done online (virtually) in response to COVID lockdown restrictions; Report writing for the training workshop.

Deliverables

The expected outputs from the consultant and the duration are shown as follows:

Deliverable: Development of a training plan after review of existing materials and briefing with YA International Communications Team for additional input.

Duration: 1 day

Document: Soft copy

Deliverable: Trainer’s training guide (manual) preparation – including PowerPoint presentation for each session

Duration: 4 days

Document: Soft copy

Deliverable: Provision/Facilitation of training of trainers (TOT) to selected participants from YA Affiliate Offices

Duration: 3 days

Deliverable: A high quality and comprehensive training report that includes the aggregated findings of the pre/post tests and feedback/evaluation forms and a thorough evaluation of the training.

Duration: 1 day

Total number of days: 9

Methodology

The “Communicating for Impact: A Digital Training of Trainers (TOT)” Workshop (TOT) will be conducted online (virtually) spread out over a period of 3 days. As this is a training of trainers (TOT) the training is expected to be participatory, practical and utilise evidence-based approaches during the 3-day training.

Below are some of the recommended approaches for the assignment though the Consultant is flexible to come up with robust engaging training methodologies: PPT presentations; Group work and presentation (e.g., break away groups on zoom or use of miro boards or any other interactive online tools); Question and answers; Relevant case studies and best practices.

The proposed training methodologies and approaches should be an integral part of the expression of interest and contain the following as a minimum requirement. The methodologies to be used during the training should be engaging, fun, enjoyable and interactive.

Note: The trainers can re-adjust their training methods in consultation with YA International Communications Team. Besides, the trainers training guide (manual) shall be approved by YA Hub Communications Team before the commencement of the training.

Evaluation criteria

Consultants will be evaluated on the following criteria: Suitability and proven relevant and prior experience in developing training manuals and facilitating training of trainer’s workshops (sample training manual produced will be required as part of the application process); Likelihood of meeting and delivering on criteria provided; Training methodologies and approaches proposed; Thematic and methodological expertise in conducting similar work; Availability to complete the work in the time proposed.

Profile of consultant

YA is seeking to engage a consultant to support the “Communicating for Impact: A Digital Training of Trainers (TOT)” for selected participants from 5 YA Affiliate Offices. The ideal consultant must meet the profile below: Master's degree in media relations, Journalism, Communication, Social Sciences, International Relations, Political Sciences, or related field/ combination; Minimum of 8 years demonstrated practical experience in communications work; Demonstrated ability and experience working as a consultant and producing good communication materials for use by Trainers; Exhibit knowledge of utilisation of Modern communication (Push and Pull) communication tools and techniques; Accurate, creative, and versatile writing skills, including for digital media; Examples of workshop materials previously developed; Excellent communication skills in English Language; Knowledge of Portuguese would be an added advantage.

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