Administration Skills for Front line Civil Servants

Background

In 2013, the Government of Lebanon opened its public education system to cater for the enormous numbers of Syrian refugee students. In 2017/2018, non-Lebanese students outnumbered Lebanese students in the public education system. The responsibility for educating all these students resides with the Lebanese Ministry of Education and Higher Education (MEHE) who, alongside a number of donors, launched the Reaching All Children with Education II (RACE II) programme in 2016.

The World Bank (WB) and Government of Lebanon (GoL), especially the Ministry of Education and Higher Education (MEHE), designed Support to RACE II (S2R2) to deliver on significant parts of RACE2 relating to the formal education sector. S2R2 is designed to complement other work developed to support RACE II, such as activities planned and implemented with UNICEF, UNHCR and UNESCO.

In addition to DFID’s financial contribution to RACE II, it supports a full-time, embedded technical assistance team to MEHE. In March 2018, a three- year technical assistance project was awarded to Oxford Policy Management, which will expand the TA facility to serve additional MEHE priority areas to achieve the objectives of RACE II through the S2R2 programme. The TA team will support the Government of Lebanon to deliver the immediate objectives of the S2R2 programme while building the capacity, systems and processes, which will underpin a medium-term sector development strategy.

Following discussions with Regional Education Office (REO) heads on their priorities and needs for capacity building, the North REO identified the need to improve staff competencies in responding to business correspondences, drafting letters, and manage day to day operations in an effective and timely manner.

As a result of this request, OPM is seeking a consultant/organization to conduct core skills training to 30 REO’s staff in North-Tripoli which might be later expanded to other REOs across Lebanon upon need. This contributes to equipping REOs’ staff with the core business skills needed to improve the quality of their administration work and interactions with the public, parents, Teachers and Principals.

Scope and description of the Task

Specifically, the consultant will undertake the following tasks:

• Develop a proposal for conducting the training that includes methodology, tools, workplan and budget.
• Develop, review and provide the training material and manuals to be used.
• Review and agree with OPM senior Project Manager on the training schedule and topics to be covered.
• Conduct the training for relevant REO’s staff. 
• Produce relevant training report using the outline agreed with OPM which includes feedback from the trainer and for the REO heads.

EXPECTED OUTPUTS

• Improved understanding of addressing and dealing with daily public correspondences.
• Demonstrable knowledge and skills in communication and correspondences “styles” and ethics used between REOs and other entities such as the Minister’s office, MEHE directorates, other REOs, schools and the public.
• Knowledge and skills in using proper vocabulary and technical business terms in drafting administrative documents.
• Improved skills in public service administration, negotiations and problems solving.
• Improved staff skills in communicating with clients.
• Participants are trained to timely manage their day to day activities to deliver better services.
• Improved skills in developing and designing professional presentation.
• Improved skills in public administrative archiving and referencing.
• Participants get knowledge and skills on setting meeting agendas, taking notes, drafting minutes of meetings and relevant reports.
• Participants improve their skills in following up on public administrative matters and reporting to their superiors.
• Better skills in managing daily business transactions (received requests, communicating with internal and external stakeholders and transferring transactions to relevant personnel inside or outside REO or MEHE).
• Participants get specific skills in stress management, organizational development and conflicts resolution.

DURATION OF WORK

The consultant/organization will be engaged over a period of 20 working days.

Reporting

The consultant/organization will report to the Team Leader on a daily basis.

DUTY STATIONS

The courses are expected to be delivered in REO’s North offices – Tripoli. However, due to the pandemic the course will be launched online then move to face-to-face delivery mode when the situation allows.

QUALIFICATIONS OF THE SUCCESSFUL CONTRACTOR

• Minimum of 10 years of professional experience in public administration.
• Demonstrates experience in developing training materials and conducting trainings.
• Excellent knowledge of public administration work and public correspondences styles.
• Strong professional communication and inter-personal skills.
• Flexibility and ability to adjust to changing circumstances and needs.
• Excellent Arabic comprehension, reading and writing.
• Rich Arabic vocabulary specifically technical administrative terms.
• Previous experience in building capacity of civil servants/public administration staff is a must.
• Strong knowledge in different public administration business cycles.
• Previous experience in working with MEHE or its affiliations is an advantage.
• Excellent management, communication and presentation skills.
• Excellent knowledge of internet and computer skills.

APPLICATION

The interested consultants/Organizations are invited to submit their technical and financial proposals for this assignment. The technical proposal shall include:

• The CV of the consultant dedicated to conduct the training; 
• A proposed methodology for how the course program will be developed, how the lessons will be planned and delivered and how course materials will be delivered and used;
• A work plan illustrating all steps that the consultant will take to carry out the course
• Any other information that the consultant/ organization finds relevant.

The financial proposal shall include:

• Trainers fees presented either as hourly, weekly or monthly sum;
• Course stationaries (in case)