Government of Nepal Ministry of Education Enhanced Vocational Education and Training Project Secretariat (EVENT Project Secretariat) Invitation

for Letter of Intent (LOI)for preparing a Roster of Short-term Training Providers Enhanced Vocational Education and Training Project (EVENT) is a project being implemented by the Ministry of Education, Government of Nepal, under World Bank financing, to expand the supply of skilled and employable labor in Nepal. The Project Objective is to expand the supply of skilled and employable labor by increasing access to quality training programs, and by strengthening the technical and vocational education and training system in Nepal. One of the key activities of the project is the provision of short-term vocational skills training and job placement to poor youth and youth from disadvantaged communities and lagging regions. During the project period (2011 to 2015), EVENT will support the training of approximately 10,000 youth using a voucher -based payment approach where short-term vocational skills training providers will receive payments for their services based on the voucher they collected ; project target for FY 2011/12 (2068/069) is to train 1000 short-term trainees. The training providers are expected to place at least 70% of the trainees in gainful employment (wage or self) after completion of training. The graduates must be employed for at least six months with a minimum monthly income of NRs 3,000 if employed in Nepal, NRs 5,000 if employed in India, and NRs 12,000 if employed overseas. Districts where training will be conducted from: Kathmandu, Lalitpur, and Bhaktapur. Private Training providers (TPs) interested in providing vocational skills training under the terms and conditions affirmed by the project are requested to submit a letter of intent. Applicants must be legally registered, registered under VAT, have recent audited financial statements have vocational skills training as a key objective of the firm, and have a proven track record of providing occupational skill training and linking trained people to employment. TPs that wish to implement training and employment in partnership with other firms need to submit their partnership agreement along with full information of both partners. Subcontracting will not be accepted. Information and documents to be submitted by the applicants: Required information to be provided by the training provider (TP) 1.Name and address, contact person, telephone number, fax, email of TP 2. Legal status of TP (Pvt. Ltd, Public Ltd etc.), major shareholders and their holding in the company (where applicable) 3. TPs objectives, organizational structure, working areas/trades, districts/locations of operation, branches in operation, partners/subcontractors, target beneficiaries 4. Human resources of TP: name, address, title, experience, qualifications of staff, trainers, trade area (for trainers), managers; number of trainers per trade 5. Training experience and output by trade for the past two years: trade name, number of training events per year for this trade, number of graduates, number of graduates

passing skills test, number of graduates placed in jobs, average wage rate of graduates, training district/location, training duration, funding organization/client, whether training conducted in-house or outsourced/subcontracted. (please present in a table if possible) 6. Average success rate in the past two years: % of graduates who passed skills test, % of gradates placed in gainful employment 7. How record keeping of trainees is done (please describe how it is done, what information is included in the records, whether records of individual trainees are kept, whether an electronic database with information on individual trainees is maintained) 8. Training programs you intend to deliver under EVENT by subject/trade(training subject/trade, training district/location, duration, who are your target beneficiaries, number of trainees, potential employers) 9. Number of new trades taken up for skills training in the last 2 years and percentage of trainees participated in soft- skills training in the last 2 years. (Soft skills are the non-technical skills, abilities, and traits that workers need to function in a specific employment environment) 10. Availability of infrastructure: building, furniture, equipment and tools, training room, workshops etc. 11. Training Curriculum (please mention whether it is self developed or replicated from other organization) 12. Training Need Assessment practice (please describe how you do it) 13. Annual financial turnover of last two years, total budget, total assets, adequate working capital, standard accounting system 14. Financial statement (source of income, expenditure, profit, loss) 15. Networking of training and employment: provide list of own branches, partnerships training providers, partnerships with potential employers 16.monitoring and follow-up system used (please describe the setup, how it work, monitoring frequency, indicators used to evaluate performance).

Required supporting documents to be submitted by the TPs 1. Photocopy of firm registration including renewal 2. Photocopy of VAT and PAN registration 3.Last years tax clearance evidence 4. Last year's audit report 5. Partnership agreement papers, MOUs with potential employers both private and public 6. Documents showing agreements with sponsoring/funding organizations in the past 7. Documents showing evidence of past training provided by TP Interested TPs are requested to submit their LOIs along with the required information and supporting documents listed above. The applications should also include authorized signatures and office seals assuring the correctness of information provided. This notice, along with the evaluation criteria for the LOI, and the Terms of Reference for the TPs are available in following websites:www.event.gov.np; www.moe.gov.np; The completed hard copy and soft copy documents should reach the following address latest by 30 January 2012

The Project Secretariat Enhanced Vocational Education and Training Project (EVENT) Subidhanager, Kathmandu Phone 00977-1-4117550, Fax 00977-1-4111775 Email info@event.gov.np EVENT reserves the right to reject any or all LOI with or without furnishing any reasons to the firms concerned. The procurement of the services under the announcement will be subject to the World Bank Procurement Guidelines and Government of Nepals Public Procurement Act and Regulations.

Table 1: Letter of Intent Screening Criteria for Voucher-based Training Providers

Serial Number 1 Assessment Area Indicator Value Points Weight Max points

Employment

Employment Rate of trainees trained in the last 2 years

-Not indicated/below 60% -60 to below 70% -70 to below 80% -80% and more

1 2 3 0 1 2 3 0 1 2 3 0 1 2 3 0 1 2 3 1 3 1 3 1 3 2 6

Training

Average annual number of trainees trained in the last 2 years

-Below 150 -Above 600 -150 to 400 400 to 600

Skill test

Percentage of trainees who have passed skills test (of the total trainees in the last 2 years) No. of new trades taken up for skills training in the last 2 years

-Below 70% -70% to below 80% 80% to below 90% -90% and above -None -1 -2 -More than 2

Number of new trades

Incorporation of soft-skills training

Percentage of trainees provided with soft-skills training in the last 2 years

-Below 70% -70 to below 80% -80 to below 90% -90% and above

Modality of training and employment placement implementation

In-house outsourcing

or

-Out-sourcing only, -Both in-house and outsourcing/partner ship -In-house only capacity

0 1

Partnership with potential employers

No exists

partnership

Have official partnership

Trades/programs

Number of trades in operation

-1-2 -3-5 -More than 5

1 2 3 0

Organizational Capacity

Quality of training information management system

-No individual trainee information available Only training information available on individual trainees -Only employment information available on individual trainees -Both training and employment information available on individual trainees

10 Organizational Capacity

Availability of electronic training databasewith information on individual trainees Monitoring system in

-No -Yes

0 3

11

-No

place

-Yes, but inadequate -Yes, and adequate

1 3 0 1 2 6

12

Infrastructure

Status of workshop

lab/

-Poorly equipped -Moderately equipped -Well equipped

2 0 1 1 2 0 3 0 3 0 1 2 6 2 6 2 6 1 2

Available space

-Inadequate -Adequate

13

Human resource

Number of trainers per trade per class Working capital for pre-financing Standard Accounting System in use

-Only one -Two or more -No -Yes No Yes -Not conducted -Audit available reports

14

Financial Viability

15

Governance and Management Structure Governance and Management Structure

16

Annual audits conducted in the last years

- 50%-90% of audit observations cleared - more than 90% of audit observations cleared 17 Quality Relevance Training and of Training assessment (TNA/RMA) need -Ad-Hoc -Measures and tools in place -Systematic analysis conducted Total maximum points:

0 1

2 75

The minimum score needed to qualify for the training is 25. However, selection committee based on the

seats available may revise the cutoff point.

Enhanced Vocational Education and Training Project (EVENT) Terms of Reference for Delivering Skills Training and Employment Services for Targeted Youths

I. Background
1. Enhanced Vocational Education and Training (EVENT) project, funded jointly by the Government of Nepal (GON) and World Bank (WB), has been started with the aim of expanding the supply of skilled and employable labor by increasing access to quality training programs, and by strengthening the technical and vocational education and training system in Nepal. As per the agreement signed between the GON and WB, the project will be implemented from July 2011 to October 2015. The project focuses on increasing access to technical education and vocational training (TEVT) programs for the disadvantaged youths - especially those who are poor, living in lagging regions, females, Dalits, marginalized Janajatis and people with disability through targeting and other inclusive processes. One of the key activities of the project is the provision of short-term vocational skills training and job placement to poor youth and youth from disadvantaged communities and lagging regions. 2. EVENT Project throughout its duration (2011-2015) will support the training of approximately 10,000 youth using a voucher-based payment approach where short-term vocational skills training providers will receive payments for their services based on their training and job placement results; the project target for FY 2011/12 (2068/069) is to train 1,000 short-term trainees. II. Objective 3. The main objective of seeking LoI is to prepare a roaster of short term training providers that can deliver quality skill training and employment services to trainees with minimum required training duration as defined by the National Skills Testing Board for a particular type of occupation/trade. III. Criteria for preparing the Roster and Final Selection of TPs 4. Interested potential TPs will submit LOI along with required information, details of which are available from the EVENT PS office1 or at the EVENT PS website2. 5. EVENT PS will evaluate the LOIs based on the information submitted by each of the interested/potential training providers following the pre-defined screening criteria which are available at the project office or at its website. 6. All eligible/potential TPs securing total score more than 25 will be qualified to be included in the roster. 7. Final selection of TPs to provide trainings will be made from among the TPs that have already included in the roster following three selection criteria: (i) weights of LOI screening scores; (ii) weights from site visits/verification; (iii) weights of Financial Proposal to be submitted by the individual screened TPs in the roster 3. Details of the final selection criteria will be published in the Training Manual and be made available to all interested TPs.

PS office address:

Phone Email
2 3

Enhanced Vocational Education and Training Project (EVENT Subidhanager, Kathmandu 00977-1-4117550, Fax 00977-1-4111775 info@event.gov.np

PS website: www.event.gov.np Separate notice will be published with to submit the financial proposal by individual/ interested TPs already in the roster. TPs will be informed of maximum per trainee cost for each trade.

IV. Target Beneficiaries

8. Differential incentive will be provided to TPs to encourage them to enrol the youths from targeted group/communities as indicated below: Target Category A Target Groups Incentive provision

Poor Dalit men and women; Special groups: Widows, men and women with disabilities, ex-Kamaiyas and Kamlaries Poor women of all castes; poor men/women from 42-Janajatis and endangered, highly marginalized, marginalized groups; and poor men from disadvantaged districts (20 lowest HDI districts)4 Poor men from other castes.

100% of the training cost

80% of the training cost

60% of the training cost

V. Scope of Work 9. The TPs will be responsible to provide skills training belonging to the above mentioned target groups. The trades to be identified for training need to be based on labour market assessments and based on demand of the trainees. 10. The trainings being provided by the TPs need to confirm to the minimum standards outlined in the Occupational Profiles (OP) of the National Skills Testing Board (NSTB) (if OP is available). 11. Skill testing of at least 90% of the trainees needs to be provisioned. The TPs must operate a reliable monitoring system to confirm that the minimum employment rate at pre-defined income levels has been achieved. 12. Provide skill training to youth during the financial year 2068/69. At least 70% of the trainees will have to be gainfully employed for at least six months, either in Nepal or abroad, after graduation. 13. Ensure that 80% of the trainees completing the training pass the skills test administered by the National Skill Testing Board (NSTB). VI. District Coverage for Trainings and Trainees

14. Districts from where trainings will be conducted: Kathmandu, Lalitpur and Bhaktapur.Potential trainees who can apply for trainings: Eligible trainees from all over Nepal can apply for training following due procedures, details of which is published in the Short Term Training Guide and will be made available for all interested TPs following due procedures.

VII. Expected Outputs

Detailed information about these groups is available in the Training Manual.

15.

The main expected outputs of the trainings are: (i) At least 70% of the training graduates are gainfully employed for at least six months.

(ii) At least 80 % of the training graduates pass the skills test administered by NSTB. VIII. Disbursements 16. Disbursement to TPs against the service delivery will be made in tranche against completion of: (i) training; (ii) certification; and (iii) job placement. Completed task will be verified independently before making such payments5. IX. Duration of Service Delivery

17. The service contract period may vary depending on the number of services (skill trainings) to be delivered by the respective TPs. Each of the training events must meet the standards of CTEVT/ NSTB. Training implementation will begin in early April 2012 and must be completed latest by Mid-July 2012.

Payment details are also explained in the Short Term Training Guidelines