Expression of Interest for JSTE to review quality of BT Hospitality - Production e-lessons 18.2208.9-002.00 QuA-Vet

I. General information

1.  Brief information on the project

The Multi-Donor Action “Improving the Quality and Attractiveness of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) in Lebanon for poor and vulnerable social groups” is jointly co-financed by the European Union and the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). The joint action is implemented by GIZ as a specific Action within the wider BMZ project “Improving the Quality and Attractiveness of TVET in Lebanon (QuA-VET)”.

The aim of the action is to orient the vocational training towards the qualification needs of the labour market in sectors with sustainable employment potentials, therefore improving the employment capacities for poor and vulnerable social groups living in Lebanon. The implementing partner, the Directorate General for Vocational and Technical Education (DGVTE), requires further support in involving the private sector in vocational education and training. Thus, the project’s emphasis is placed on improving the partnership between vocational training institutions and the private sector. This includes developing modularized and practice-oriented training programmes in selected sectors, digitalizing e-learning lessons for the technical theoretical subjects of the promoted TVET programs and general subjects and enhancing the quality of in-company training for employees and work-based learning for vulnerable individuals.

The target groups of the project are vulnerable youth and young adults (aged 15-35), including Syrian and Palestinian refugees, individuals from hosting communities, TVET Lebanese students, unemployed or underemployed individuals (aged 17 to 35), and employees in Micro, Small, and Medium-sized Enterprises (MSMEs) seeking to improve their employment prospects through relevant qualifications.

2. Context

Background – e-Learning

Lebanon’s deepening economic crisis has severely impacted the public TVET sector, with inflation and rising costs making it difficult for students to afford transportation and basic educational materials in the normal context. Adding to these challenges, the recent surge in conflict and security issues has left many regions in the country inaccessible, forcing the closure of many TVET schools. Many other schools in relatively safe areas were being used as shelters for internally displaced people (IDPs), limiting their ability to fully function as educational institutions. Consequently, in-person education will be challenging in some these public institutes for the foreseeable future, and alternative remote learning options are necessary to ensure students continue to receive education during this time of crisis.

Based on the experience in e-Learning which the GIZ projects’ ProVTE, VTE4all, and the currently running, QuA-VET have collected and considering that the teaching and learning at distance will be a constant in the future in the form of blended learning, the project has developed and published the technical theoretical courses of Baccalauréat Technique (BT) Industrial Mechanics and Technicien Superieur (TS) Health Inspection and Food Safety (HIFS) in e-Learning modality, and is extending the development of e-Learning Lessons (ELLs) to include the BT2 General Subjects, in addition to the technical theoretical courses for the BT Hospitality – Food Production and TS Internet of Things (IoT).

This will ensure that students have access to a larger number of courses and their learning is not interrupted due to the instability in the country. Moreover, the lessons in EL modality will be a support for teachers during the in-presence lessons.  

Up to now teachers of the BT Hospitality - Production/Kitchen are used to deliver the content of the courses in classroom settings. To address the need for competent teachers who can develop technical theoretical subjects in e-Learning modality, a competent and motivated group of public TVET teachers will be selected and trained to develop the same technical and theoretical subjects in EL modality, in Arabic language and possibly a second language.

Outline of the mission

In our initiative to integrate digital lessons in the public TVET system, Articulate Rise 360 has been selected as an Authoring Software, a dynamic tool that enables content developers³ to create engaging and interactive e-Learning Lessons, in addition to Moodle, as a Learning Management System (LMS) for the integration of these lessons into the educational framework, to which students and teachers from the public TVET schools will have access. 

The platform has been used to deliver e-lessons of BT “Bâtiment et Travaux Publics” and BT1 General Subjects under ProVTE and VTE4all projects, in addition to the digital lessons of the BT Industrial Mechanics and TS Health Inspection and Food Safety as well as BT Hospitality - Production/Kitchen and TS internet of things under the QuA-VET project.   

There will be up to 25 content developers trained on Articulate 360 by QuA-VET for inserting up to 720 e-learning lessons (ELLs) of the BT Hospitality - Production in two languages, for the school years 2024/25 until 2026/27. The e-lessons will be uploaded to the learning management system and numerous teachers will be administering and monitoring the use of the courses through their students.

In order to ensure the quality of the ELLs, competent experts are required to review, evaluate, provide comments and recommendations on each ELL developed by content developers, according to the criteria set.

3.  GIZ shall hire the contractors for the anticipated contract term, from 03.03.2025 to 30.06.2026

4.  The contractors shall provide the following work/service: 

• Meet with the project team members, staff of the DGVTE and of other organisations involved in the project as considered necessary.
• Inform and regularly consult the project team members. 
• Attend a training session, if needed, on the process of reviewing and evaluating e-Learning lessons with the QuA-VET project team.
• Each expert to review up to 240 ELLs developed by the content developers before their upload to the learning management system: review, comment on and provide weekly feedback and suggestions for content developers on their first draft of the lessons.
• Conduct a second review and evaluation for the ELLs based on established quality criteria on a weekly basis.
• Provide suggestions for the content developers to improve quality of ELLs: with regards to layout, interactivity, comprehension, texts formulation, etc.
• Collect deliverables of each approved e-lesson and share them with the project team.
• Fill-in and share the evaluation sheet for each completed ELL with the project team on weekly basis.
• Fill-in monitoring sheets to track ELL reviews, deliverable submissions and e-lessons upload.
• Ensure the upload of each e-lesson to the Learning Management System on weekly basis: enter the e-lesson, navigate through all the blocks and report any technical issue faced to the content developers in coordination with the project team.
• Facilitate ongoing communication and discussion with content developers when needed to address feedback and enhance the quality of ELLs.
• Undertake all necessary activities to achieve the required outputs/results.
• Remain accessible online for follow-up discussions after the short-term mission.

Outputs/Results expected from each contractor

• Participation in training session delivered by project team on the ELL review and evaluation.
• Up to 120 ELLs of BT Hospitality - Production in Arabic language reviewed, commented on, checked for their quality and evaluated in Articulate Review 360 before their upload to the learning management system by the content developers, abiding by the timeline set by project team for review.
• Up to 120 ELLs of BT Hospitality - Production in a 2^nd language reviewed, commented on, checked for their quality and evaluated in Articulate Review 360.
• List of ELLs reviewed and evaluated, including lesson title and link to Articulate 360.
• Evaluation sheet for each of the ELLs completed and approved.
• Deliverables monitoring sheets filled in.

II. Tender requirements

1. Qualifications of proposed staff

        1.1 Expert 1:

             1.1.1 General qualifications

Qualification & General professional experience:

Education:                         University degree at least at bachelor level, or LT, in Hospitality Management, Hospitality Food Production, Education, or any other related field

Professional experience:  At least 5 years of experience in teaching at secondary and/or in public TVET institutes, in addition to developing at least 10 e-learning lessons, and/or reviewing e-learning lessons using Articulate 360

      1.1.2    Experience in the region/knowledge of the country

5 years of working experience in Lebanon

       1.1.3     Language skills

Business fluency in Arabic, English and/or French languages

Others:

• Proficient in use of Articulate 360
• Proficient in use of MS Office (Power Point, Word, Excel, Outlook)
• Proficiency in internet (re-)search
• Proficiency in use of Microsoft Teams, Zoom, WebEx or similar programs

2. Scope of work

Up to 3 experts will be contracted for up to 72 days to Review, comment on and evaluate up to 720 e-learning lessons of BT2 General Subjects, in Arabic and a second language.