Albania’s education and training system has been still mainly focussed on the schooling of youngsters, through the ensuring of both, general education attainment and alternative vocational education and training pathways. In the recent years, the investments for capacitating schools and teaching staff, at all education levels, with minimum standard levels of performance have been the major concern of the Government, at as well as the extension of schooling years and coverage rate of youth attending further education, namely at secondary and tertiary levels. Hence, the “adult learning” opportunities in the public sector are still scarce and the engagement of active population in further education and training actions is very low (below 1% of participation of adults in education and training activities). This situation configures the background for the further development of lifelong learning opportunities to adults in Albania.
Encompassing the significant on-going reform in the Vocational Education and Training (VET) sector, as part of the Albania pathway towards the European Union accession – which aims at bringing VET closer to the labour market needs and fostering a better cooperation with the public employment services and a stronger involvement of the private sector – it is now the right momentum for the development of the adult learning sector alongside with the Albanian Qualification Framework implementation.
The National Agency for Vocational Education and Training and Qualifications (NAVETQ) as the National Support Service for EPALE has, therefore, submitted a proposal to develop a set of activities to promote the European Platform for Adult Learning in Europe (EPALE) in Albania, to be implemented between January and December 2017/2018, as a first initiative as a candidate country in this field.
This set of activities comprises: (i) the design and implementation of a Communication Strategy to promote EPALE in Albania and recruit users and contributors; (ii) contributions for updating the information about Lifelong Learning in Albania available at EPALE; (iii) animation strategies through social media and virtual communities to expand the Lifelong Learning community in the country, and to motivate adult learners, adult educators, the Albanian businesses and the society in general; (iv) the maintenance of the NAVETQ webpage on EPALE, cross linking it to other public and private institutions operating in the education and training field; and (v) support to multilingualism through the uploading of contents related to lifelong learning in Albanian language, exploiting the cultural and identity dimensions of adult learning activities.
- Objective of this assignment
- Expected deliverables
- Existing database of Adult Learning providers and experts reshuffled according to the current needs of EPALE, published on-line and ready for being updated by different users (by November 2018)
- A Maintenance Plan with the identification of the frequency of uploading information according to guidelines of the CSS is drafted in cooperation with NAVETQ
- Maintenance of the IT infrastructure in order to incorporate the needs and requirements of EPALE in the NAVETQ/MoFE website and other related social media
- Updating the EPALE NSS web page for Albania, with contents in both ENG and ALB languages
- Capacity building of the IT staff in charge of administrating EPALE database at NSS and on the topics related to social media contents production and usage
- Training package on moderation of on-line discussions and e-skills to produce contents for and use social media (Facebook, Twitter, and others) and one training action to 20 participants organized and delivered under NAVETQ coordination.
- Qualification/Expertise of the IT Expert
- Bachelor or Master Degree in Information and Communication Technology
- Relevance of:
- Specialized Knowledge in Information Technologies and Management Information Systems, including web tools and social media
- Experience on similar projects/activities/in organizing IT trainings and on the job support to public administration personnel
- Established methodologies for software analysis, implementation testing and support in public services
- Similar work for public or governmental institutions or agencies would be considered an asset
- Adequacy of the technical and financial proposal to the objectives of the present Terms of Reference
- The expert should be one IT specialist/employee with previous experience in implementing similar solutions to public administration.
- The expert should have 5+ years of work experience in the field of information technology and management information systems.
- Time frame and work plan
- Administrative and financial conditions
- How and where to apply
- a Technical and Financial Offer, including at least two examples of similar projects
- a recently updated CV,
- an application request and
- a copy of the diploma of the highest degree achieved.