Maharat for Tourism

Countries: Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, occupied Palestinian territory, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Yemen

Organization: Spark

Closing date: 8 Jan 2024

Terms of References (ToR)

For Curriculum Development and Online Platform Design

Contracting authority Stichting SPARK

Programme title: Maharat for Tourism

Outcomes Curriculum Development and Online Platform Design

Locations: Egypt, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Jordan, Lebanon, Tunisia and Palestine (and Iraq and Yemen if feasible)

Date of advertisement December 15th, 2023

Application Deadline: January 08th, 2024

Duration: 12 Months (including reporting)

Expected Start Date: January 15th, 2023

Price Price shall be quoted in USD including VAT including all other related Taxes.

Last Date for Questions and Answers (Q&A) December 28th, 2023 (16:00 Local Time)

Application Method Offers should be sent to m.campos@spark-online.org

Contracting Authority – SPARK

SPARK develops higher education and entrepreneurship to empower young, ambitious people to lead their fragile and conflict-affected societies into prosperity. SPARK is a dynamic and growing international not-for-profit development organisation with 100+ staff members in more than 14 offices around the world.

SPARK supports refugees in the Middle East by providing them with scholarships in universities and higher education institutions in the region. SPARK also supports young entrepreneurs in fragile states to start or grow their own businesses.

Summary
- Content creation for digital training curriculum that is focused on digitisation, sustainable tourism, so skills in marketing and customer service, etc.

SPARK’s Maharat project funded by Tides Foundation seeks to support underserved individuals in the chosen countries across the Middle East Region, by providing them digital and so skills training and capacity building to enter the travel and tourism sector, or enhance their existing job skills within the sector. This will be achieved by:

A freely accessible, open-source digital training course that will be accessible to any and all individuals/learners across the region, in the Arabic language, that offer new opportunities to explore within the travel and tourism sector, namely eco/green tourism.
Organising networking launches to provide individuals with access to economic opportunities in the travel and tourism sector.
Online learning circles that will build local communities’ interest, information and experience-sharing and expand community support.
Targeting business owners from low-income backgrounds and minorities as learners.

SPARK is currently seeking service providers to assist in the implementation of the project. The selected service providers will be responsible for carrying out project activities, with continuous, tailor-made technical support from SPARK.

Outputs and Deliverables

Outcome 1: Digital training on tourism in the MENA region is enhanced through the creation of three parallel curricula as an open source, online learning programme for Tourism in the MENA region

Activity 1: Design of Tourism Curriculum

The Curricula Designer & Trainer is responsible for designing and implementation of three online training curricula in the field of tourism, sustainable & green tourism. The curricula to be produced are aimed at training for stakeholders across the Middle East & North Africa region, in the sector of tourism, including youth, individuals working in the tourism sector, small and medium sized enterprises, and government officials (including local level government, and subsidiary agencies, etc).

The Curricula Designer & Trainer is expected to work on a part-time basis to design and thereafter implement the training, through guided training workshops across chosen cities and locations in the MENA region. The Curricula Designer & Trainer will work together with SPARK to achieve the following tasks:

Design the three parallel curricula (for each group of stakeholders), in English and Arabic;
Provide consultation meetings with web developers and SPARK team project to get sign-off on format/design;
Content creation for digital training curriculum that is focused on digitization, sustainable tourism, so skills in marketing and customer service, etc.
A freely accessible, open source digital training course that will be accessible to any and all individuals/learners across the region, in the Arabic language, that offer new opportunities to explore within the travel and tourism sector, namely eco/green tourism.
Be able to lead training workshop across the chosen cities following the official launch to widen the pool of beneficiaries for the training;
Represent SPARK, when needed, in the relevant meetings and events and in front of the relevant governmental bodies, in relation to this training curriculum.

Activity 2: Design an Online Learning Management System (LMS) dedicated to hosting and managing the MOOCs

To deliver the content to users, we are looking for a service provider to design a LMS to offer a structured and efficient presentation of course materials.

Functionalities of the LMS:

Content Delivery and Management
User Accessibility and Engagement
Progress Tracking and Reporting
Certification and Accreditation

Target Group

The Project will support the following End Beneciaries, targeting 25,000, across countries of Egypt, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Jordan, Lebanon, Tunisia and Palestine (and Iraq and Yemen if feasible):

Youth seeking employment opportunities (with a focus on those in rural areas in areas where tourism is a high value sector, as well as women) (30% or 7500 persons)
SMB owners operating low-income and rural areas in the sector (30%, or 7500 persons)
Local informal tourism sector workers (e.g. tour guides, local hotel personnel, etc.) in underserved communities (20%, or 5000 persons)
Government policymakers enabling and supporting the End Beneficiaries to engage with their local authorities, local authorities unable to provide structured access to opportunities for End Beneciaries (20%, or 5000 persons)

Geographic breakdown:

Egypt: 6,500
Saudi: 6,500
UAE: 2,000
Qatar: 2,000
MENA-wide rollout: 8,000

Expected activities

Main Activity

Main Activity Activity Implementation deadline
Activity 1: Design of Tourism Curriculum
Design the curriculum outline (modules for 3 curriculums) 30th Jan 2024
Content development 01st Mar 2024
Pilot Testing and Revision 30th April 2024
Revision and Preparation to launch 30th May 2024
Launch the curriculum 30th May 2024
Conduct periodic reviews and continuous improvement Whole duration of the project
Activity 2: Design an Online Learning Management System (LMS) dedicated to hosting and managing the MOOCs
Platform Development and Content Integration 15th Feb 2024
Design/choose a suitable LMS to host the content and offer required functionalities 15th Feb 2024
Integrate content and functionalities 30th Mar 2024
Monitor and provide data analysis Whole duration of the project
Conduct periodic reviews and continuous improvement.
Whole duration of the project
Manage the platform Whole duration of the project

Criteria for Submitting a Bid

5+ years’ experience in curricula development.
Demonstrated experience working within the Tourism sector across the MENA region, including the GCC.
Experience and understanding of sustainable and green tourism. Prior knowledge on the MENA and GCC region an asset.
Experience in designing and facilitating online digital training, experience with google or similar digital platforms an asset,
Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English and Arabic,
Good inter-cultural communication and social (networking) skills.
With cooperation with SPARK, the service provider must be responsible for the preparation/ management/ implementation of the project in collaboration with related local partners and institutions,
Deliver tangible and efficient results,
Be able to efficiently budget and contribute to the success of the activities.
The service provider will comply with any legal obligations it is bound by under national law.
The service provider shall share the registration documents and other requested documents.
The service provider will adhere to SPARK’s General Terms and Conditions for service agreements.

Applicants may submit a bid either on its own or in cooperation with other organisations by forming a consortium. Consortium partners or subcontractors must sign a consortium agreement or sub-supply agreement, specifying the responsibilities of the lead organisation and of the other organisations.

Application

Phase 1

Letter of interest:

The Letter of Interest (in English) must detail the following:

Outlining brief description of the expertise/portfolio of the applying agency in the field of tourism and curriculum development.Detailing why the applicant is a good candidate for this partnership based on programme design as indicated in this call.
Proposed dates / duration for implementing activities. (Starting date as soon as possible after agreement and project end date shall be after 12 months.
Detailing regions in which the organisation is able to operate.
Estimated efficient budget (including human resources, other admin costs, direct project cost, VAT and all other related Taxes).

Full Proposal

The proposal (in English) must detail the following:

Objectives, results/outcomes & indicators/outputs,
Proposed dates / duration for implementing the program,
Detailed project activities,
Monitoring and evaluation plan and description of the monitoring system,
Project team structure, roles and responsibilities,
Communication plan and activities.
Details why the applicant agency is a suitable partner for this project.
Estimated efficient budget (including human resources, other admin costs, direct project cost as well as general overhead up to max %7).
Annexes: Activity plan and budget breakdown.
The proposal must be a maximum of 10 pages in addition to the annexes.
A sample of CV’s of the core staff attributed to the assignment;

Phase 2:

Due diligence documents
- At least 3 references from previous work projects including contact information (organizational contact information)
- Signed contracts for similar work within the last three years; indicating description of contract scope, contract duration, and contract value
- Recommendation letters or any other form of documentation proving completion of previously undertaken work within the last three years.
Documents supporting the Eligibility Criteria
- Legal Business Registration
- Latest Tax Registration/Clearness Certificate

Selection and Evaluation Criteria:

SPARK is committed to conducting a fair and transparent proposal process, as well as ensuring that all bidders are treated and evaluated equally throughout the proposal process. Bidder responses will be weighted in two categories: Technical and financial criteria and sub-criteria.

Essential Criteria (Exclusion if not met)
1. Possess legitimate business premises;
2. Registered for trading and tax;
3. Not a banned party or on any government blacklists.
Technical Proposal (70%)
1. Capacity building methodology (20%)
2. Track record of similar projects (10%)
3. Demonstrated experience in training and coaching (10%)
4. Knowledge of sustainable tourism (10%)
5. Access to relevant subject matter experts (10%)
6. CVs of project management team, experts, and trainers (10%)
Financial Proposal (30%)

Criterion will obtain between 0 and 5-point, 5 points being the maximum, 0 points the minimum and the points obtained will be multiplied by criterion weight. An analysis will include assessing the proposals’ methodology, expertise, background, etc.

SPARK expert evaluation committee will assign up to 5 points for the best quality of the sample, based on the following evaluation grid:

Score / Benchmark forServices/Works

5 Excellent response with no weaknesses shown and exceeds the requirement - also provides comprehensive, detailed, and convincing assurances that the services will be delivered to an excellent standard

4 A response that demonstrates real understanding and fully meets the requirements - offers assurances that the service delivered will be of a high standard.

3 A satisfactory response which demonstrates a reasonable understanding of the requirements and gives reasonable assurance of delivery of services to an adequate standard, but does not provide sufficiently convincing assurance to be able to award them a higher mark 3

2 A response where reservations exist -lacks full credibility/convincing detail, and there is a significant risk that the response will not deliver/be successful

1 A response where serious reservations exist, for example, insufficient detail is provided and the response has fundamental flaws, or seriously lacks credibility with a high risk of non-delivery

0 Response completely fails to address the criterion under consideration

Those bidders who get less than 3 for the capacity of the bidder shall not be accepted or considered and their offer will be rejected.

For each bid, points from all evaluation criteria will be added up and the winning bid will be the bid with the highest number of points. In case of equal number of points, the winning bid will be the one with the lowest price. However, SPARK retains the right to select any bidder who they deem as most suitable to produce the highest quality deliverables within a reasonable budget.

How to Apply

The application deadline is January 08th, 2024, at the end of the workday (16:00)
If you have any questions please contact SPARK, via email: m.campos@spark-online.org

Important Notes

Email should be addressed to SPARK at : m.campos@spark-online.org
The subject of the email should be “Maharat – Bidder Name, Date.”
All attached documents should be clearly labelled and renamed so it is clear to understand what each file relates to.
The financial offer is required to be in US Dollars including VAT and must contain all TAX relevant to the invoice.

About SPARK

SPARK offers access to higher (vocational) education and supports entrepreneurship development in fragile and conflict-affected states so that young, ambitious people can lead their societies into stability and prosperity. Over the last 29 years, SPARK has built a strong record of accomplishment in over 25 states in the Middle East, Africa, and Europe.
In doing so, SPARK contributes to laying a foundation to rebuild conflict-affected regions, once the conflict is over.
By collaborating with local and international organisations, SPARK builds local capacity to enable the sustainability of its programmes. SPARK is a dynamic and growing, international not-for-profit development organisation in 14 offices.
We believe that sustainable, economic growth is essential for the alleviation of poverty.
By offering private-sector development services to young people in conflict-affected regions, we believe that the potential for further conflict is significantly reduced.

How to apply

Application Method

Offers should be sent to m.campos@spark-online.org