Consultancy - EdTech & Digital Pedagogies Expert, Office of Innovation, Home-based (Part-time), 11.5 months, REQ#555987

UNICEF’s Learning Innovation Hub is looking for a visionary EdTech and pedagogy expert to lead the development of Learning Hub’s EdTech Framework and to provide technical expertise and thought leadership for Hub activities.

UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential. 

Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone. 

And we never give up. 

For every child, learning

UNICEF has a 70-year history of innovating for children. We believe that new approaches, partnerships and technologies that support the realization of children’s rights are key to improving children’s lives. Worldwide, we innovate to tackle the most pressing problems faced by the most vulnerable children. We take a systematic approach to innovation, applying skills and energy across new tools and technologies, products, innovative financing and new ways of working to boost our impact.

The Office of Innovation is a creative and agile team in UNICEF. We sit at a unique intersection, where an organization that works on huge global issues meets the startup thinking, the technology, the tools, the know-how and the partners that turn ideas and energy into scalable solutions for children.

Within the Office of Innovation, the recently established UNICEF Learning Innovation Hub based in Helsinki will become a global home for the architects of the future of learning. It will support the Reimagine Education initiative by accelerating and scaling game-changing digital learning solutions that can help solve the learning crisis and provide access to quality education to all children.

How can you make a difference? 

The EdTech & Digital Pedagogies Expert will bring to the newly established Learning Hub team strong theoretical and practical knowledge on digital learning approaches and pedagogies, together with best practices for building, adapting, and evaluating global digital learning solutions that can deliver impactful learning outcomes, particularly for the most vulnerable children.

The role will also provide technical expertise and guidance to the process of curating and matching cutting-edge edtech tools to the needs of a cohort of Learning Pioneer countries that will be testing, accelerating, and scaling digital learning innovations. It will also support the different EdTech Innovators and projects within the learning portfolio with technical support on how to strengthen their solutions and on the best ways to build evidence in the different phases.

This role will work under the guidance and direction of the Senior Advisor, Learning Innovation, in close collaboration with relevant Learning Innovation Hub colleagues and with an extensive network across UNICEF divisions, offices, and teams.

Your main responsibilities will be to:

• Provide thought leadership and technical expertise on edtech and digital pedagogies to the Learning Hub team to inform the overall strategy of the Learning Hub.
• Lead the development of Digital UNICEF’s Edtech Framework –to be co-designed in collaboration with the PG Education Digital Learning team - including research, stakeholder involvement, and design of the framework.
• Provide edtech and pedagogical expertise to inform the development of the MVP of the Learning Cabinet, and lead on the selection of the first cohorts of high-quality EdTech tools to be featured in the Learning Cabinet’s MVP.
• Work closely with the Education Manager and UNICEF Country Offices as a trusted strategic and technical advisor to find, select and adapt the best ed-tech tools for their contexts, in collaboration with the Learning Innovation Hub’s Education Manager.
• Work closely with the Learning Portfolio Manager, providing technical support on the EdTech Innovators portfolio selection process, as well as on how to strengthen and build evidence for the different solutions.
• Develop and deliver knowledge pieces and capacity-building materials and training for key stakeholders of the Hub, including Country Offices.
• Support connections with the Finnish and global edtech ecosystem.

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have… 

• An advanced university degree (Master’s or higher) in Education or related field.
  *A first University Degree in a relevant field combined with 2 additional years of professional experience may be accepted in lieu of an Advanced University Degree. 
• A minimum of 8 years of relevant professional experience in the Educational or Education Technology field, combining practical and theoretical experience is required
• Demonstrated experience in evaluation of digital learning tools, digital pedagogy, learning analytics and cutting-edge research for improving learning outcomes is required
• Demonstrated experience and know-how of the EdTech global ecosystem is required.
• Demonstrated ability to produce research & benchmarking based on multiple sources (desk research & interviews) and to distil the learnings into strategic guidance, preferably in the field of education technologies.
• Demonstrated ability to provide guidance on education technologies and pedagogy to inform strategy.
• Proven capacity to work with collaborative teams across different locations and with different technical skills.
• Demonstrated ability to build networks.
• Experience in entrepreneurial ecosystems, particularly in the area of edtech, desired.
• Knowledge of the Finnish edtech ecosystem is an asset.
• Experience in working (and ideally innovating) with and for children in resource-poor environments is desirable.
• Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) or a local language is an asset.

Duty Station

Helsinki, Finland or Remote (Home-based). Candidate is expected to be available during working hours in the Europe time zones.

Duration

11.5 months, part-time (up to 4 days a week)

Proposed Payment Schedule

Payments will be made monthly. The proposed rate should inclusive of all professional fees, daily allowances, living allowances, and other administrative costs and should assume a part-time commitment. Consultant is eligible for standard DSA for all work-related travel.

Insurance:  Consultants and individual contractors are fully responsible for arranging, at their own expense, all insurance, such as life, health and other forms of insurance, covering the period of their services as they consider appropriate. They are required to certify that they are covered by medical/health insurance.

How to apply:

Qualified candidates are requested to upload a cover letter, resume/cv, and their proposed fees (monthly rate in USD) by 25th October 2022. Please also indicate your availability in your cover letter.

For every Child, you demonstrate… 

UNICEF's values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability, and Sustainability (CRITAS). 

The competencies required for this post are….

• Drive to achieve results for impact (Level 2)
• Thinks and acts strategically (Level 3)
• Innovates and embraces change (Level 2)

To view our competency framework, please visit here. 

 UNICEF is here to serve the world’s most disadvantaged children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, or any other personal characteristic.

UNICEF offers reasonable accommodation for consultants/individual contractors with disabilities. This may include, for example, accessible software, travel assistance for missions or personal attendants. We encourage you to disclose your disability during your application in case you need reasonable accommodation during the selection process and afterwards in your assignment. 

UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check. 

Remarks:  

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process. 

Individuals engaged under a consultancy or individual contract will not be considered “staff members” under the Staff Regulations and Rules of the United Nations and UNICEF’s policies and procedures, and will not be entitled to benefits provided therein (such as leave entitlements and medical insurance coverage). Their conditions of service will be governed by their contract and the General Conditions of Contracts for the Services of Consultants and Individual Contractors. Consultants and individual contractors are responsible for determining their tax liabilities and for the payment of any taxes and/or duties, in accordance with local or other applicable laws. 

The selected candidate is solely responsible to ensure that the visa (applicable) and health insurance required to perform the duties of the contract are valid for the entire period of the contract. Selected candidates are subject to confirmation of fully-vaccinated status against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) with a World Health Organization (WHO)-endorsed vaccine, which must be met prior to taking up the assignment. It does not apply to consultants who will work remotely and are not expected to work on or visit UNICEF premises, programme delivery locations or directly interact with communities UNICEF works with, nor to travel to perform functions for UNICEF for the duration of their consultancy contracts.