International Consultant on Early Childhood Program Model Setup and Operations

Project:     Intergeneration Deaf Education Outreach
Title: International Consultant on Early Childhood Program Model Setup and Operations
Location: Hanoi-base with travel to project sites
Report to: Project Manager

Introduction
The Intergenerational Deaf Education Outreach Project is implemented by World Concern Development Organization in cooperation with the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) through four years (July 2011 – June 2015) in the four provinces of Hanoi, Thai Nguyen, Hue and Ho Chi Minh City. The overall objectives of the project is to assist young deaf children to integrate into mainstream society, by piloting an innovative joint family and institution-based delivery system comprising screening, family support, and preschool services.
The project is funded by Japanese Social Development Fund (JSDF Grant No. TF099058), a trust fund managed by the World Bank (WB). The total grant is USD 2,798,270.

The project aims to assist young deaf children to integrate into mainstream society, according to each child’s visual and/or auditory learning capacities, by piloting an innovative joint family and institution-based delivery system comprising screening, family support, language instruction, and preschool services aimed at school-readiness.
The project has five components:
(1) Demonstrating (joint family-institution pre-school education for deaf children, and
essential knowledge base)
(2) Developing professional human resources for pre-school deaf education
(3) Building capacity and partnerships for the deaf communities and raising awareness for general public
(4) Monitoring and evaluation
(5) Project management

Job Summary:
The Model Set-up and Operations International Consultant will be principally involved with Component 1: Demonstrating Joint Family-Institution Pre-School Education for Deaf Children, and Essential Knowledge Base. This component aims to create affordable ways of helping families with a deaf child via a 5-fulltime-person Family Support Team (comprising of two deaf "Family Mentors", one sign language teacher, one hearing teacher of the deaf children, and one hearing communication facilitator/interpreter) placed in each of six child care centers countrywide. In each selected child-care center, one nursery-kindergarten classroom will be established and resourced for use, family support services will be developed, and checklists and procedures deployed, and so on. The personnel will be prepared through training covered in Component 2- Developing Professional Human Resources for Pre-School Deaf Education.

This “model set-up and operations consultant” will be involved in collecting baseline data from prospective sites, advising project participants on a range of topics germane to set-up and operations of early childhood programs, giving input to other national and international consultants, and in preparing a written guide to action for the project.

Responsibilities, outputs and timeline

Under this assignment, the Consultant will:
1. Develop a framework to guide initial baseline study of deaf education facilities in Vietnam that are prospective sites for the project’s placement of early educators-in-training and establishment of a deaf early childhood program. Devise screening criteria for IDEO sites. (Output: baseline guide and screening criteria for early childhood programs)[Timeline: 1 Day];
2. Visit field sites and conduct interviews and observations to collect essential data about programs. Participate in discussions with school and community groups about the role of early childhood programs (Output: Field data notes) [Timeline: 5 Days]; 
3. Give presentation to national-level government partners and project leaders about the core concepts of model set-up and operations of early childhood programs for deaf children (Output: Presentation) [Timeline: 1 Days];
4. Work on site selection and model set-up issues with the project staff and Technical Working Group on Component 1: Demonstrating Joint Family-Institution Pre-School Education for Deaf Children, and Essential Knowledge Base (Output: Key implementation decisions) [Timeline: 3 Days];
5. Prior to placement of family support teams in centers, confer with international/national trainers and chief technical consultant about human resource- work structure issues, i.e., ways to integrate family support teams into early childhood center operations (Output: Advice for trainees) [Timeline: 1 Days];
6. Prepare a written guide to action in setting up and operating a culturally-appropriate early education program including a home visitation and center-based activity (Output: Guide to action for model set-up and operations) [Timeline: 3 Days];

Qualifications and experience
- An advanced university degree (M.A., Ph.D) in education, with expertise in early child education and disabled children;
- Substantial experience in teaching of young deaf children, including curriculum planning and individual learning assessment;
- At least 10 years experience in administration of early child education program for deaf pre-school age children. Prefer experience in managing deaf-hearing teams;
- Preference to applicants with a proven research background in young children’s learning with a multi-cultural perspective;
- Fluent in at least one sign language, and close familiarity with the issues confronting deaf people in education;
- Excellent report writing skills in English.

Assignment modalities and duration

The International Consultant will carry out this assignment in association with other international consultants and national consultants.  It is expected that the International Consultant will work 14 days (approximately 10 days spent in Vietnam).

The Consultant will be responsible for: (i) arranging his/her own travel; (ii) following agreed timelines; and (iii) producing the final brief as agreed in the contract. 
Estimated start: August 2011
Interested candidates are requested to send a letter of application and their CV with details of qualifications, experience and references via email to: [email protected]
Only short-listed candidates will be contacted. 

Deadline for Applications: 10 Aug 2011