Background of Skills and Employment Programme in Bangladesh (SEP-B)
The “Skills and Employment Programme in Bangladesh” (SEP-B) is a £21.63 million, 5-year programme that is funded by UK aid and SDC. The programme is implemented by GRM International, in consortium with Swisscontact and the British Council.
SEP-B supports private-sector led training for the poor, and in particular training that effectively supports women and disadvantaged populations into decent employment. The programme seeks to test and scale-up market driven, quality skills training models within the Ready Made Garments (RMG) and Construction sectors that will stimulate further investment in training by trainees, private training providers and employers. Within the programme period, SEP-B supports up to 70 different training initiatives that will train at least 110,000 men and women of whom 65% will increase their income for a total cumulated value of three times the programme costs, i.e. approx. £65 million. SEP-B supports and builds upon the TVET reform agenda of Bangladesh in coordination with the Directorate of Technical Education (DTE) of the Ministry of Education.
The programme is structured around three components:
- Supporting private training providers to offer affordable quality training that enhances employability.
- Supporting private sector industries to develop and operate industry-led training facilities.
- Supporting the policy environment and the development of skills training packages that meet the occupational standards of the industry and can be used by above mentioned training systems.
Rationale for the consultancy assignment
As part of its programme, and where applicable based on training materials existing in Bangladesh, SEP-B develops relevant training materials for 15 different occupations that includes (per occupation):
- Curriculum (50-90 pages each)
- Trainers’ guide (around 500-750 pages)
Given the limitations of the learners and the trainers of PTPs in English language, all the training materials in English need to be translated into native Bangla by maintaining the meaning and rhythm of the original document. SEP-B opts to outsource the translation work to external consultants in Bangladesh.
Methodology, key duties and tasks
The consultancy assignment will be undertaken in close cooperation with the SEP-B team, the latter represented by a Training Coordinator or Project Officer. The key duties of the assignment will be delivered through carrying out the Bangla translation work of the training materials that will be supplied by SEP-B. This applies for the curricula and trainers’ guides.
The consultant will utilise his/her own venue, logistics, computer and other resources to carry out the assignment in due course. However, he/she will also be welcomed to use the vicinity of SEP-B’s office in Baridhara if deemed necessary.
In order to achieve the objective as mentioned above, the consultant will:
- Study the curriculum guide in English and other relevant documents which enable the consultant to perceive and retrieve the underpinning notion of different statements of the entire curriculum.
- Translate the documents by using Bijoy Bangla software, SutonnyMJ, Font Size 12 for the body of the curriculum, 15 for module title, 14 for tasks, module outcomes etc. or follow the font sizes of the original document.
- Collect and use the popular terms and terminologies in translating the technical terms especially the jargons used by BTEB, Skills Development Policy and other skills development projects in Bangladesh.
- Follow the templates and styles in the original curriculum while carrying out the translation work.
- Liaise with the programme staff to ensure timely delivery of translations.
Work Volume and time schedule:
SEP-B will provide on case to case basis the documents to the consultant for translation. Within the time frame of an initial contract of 180 calendar days (half year) this will be maximum 3,000 (three thousand) pages of translation. This is excluding the learners’ guides since these have the same text as appears in the trainers’ guides; the learners’ guides, however, also have to be produced which require formatting efforts only.
Profile/requirement of consultant
- A master’s degree in any relevant field.
- A minimum of 3 years of working experience in translating technical documents (including curriculum and manuals) from English to Bangla, proven by certificates of engagement or the like from clients or employers.
- Fluent in Bangla and English, both verbal as written
- Excellent proficiency in MS Office (particularly Word and Excel) including Bijoy Bangla software.
Consultancy proposal
Interested consultants can show their interest by providing the following documents:
- CV of the consultant
- Proof of experience
- Motivation letter of maximum one page, indicating the suitability of the consultant for the assignment and the anticipated response time to translating work
- Financial proposal, preferably in rate per word (which would exclude numbers and based on the understanding that there will be substantial reparative text in the documents)
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