Individual Consultant - Workshop Trainer: Teaching for Adolescent Well-being and Gender Equality

OVERVIEW

Parent Sector : Education Sector (ED)

Duty Station: Bangkok

Job Family: Education

Type of contract : Non Staff

Duration of contract : From 1 to 6 months

Recruitment open to : External candidates

Application Deadline (Midnight Duty Station Time) : 23-AUG-2025

UNESCO Core Values: Commitment to the Organization, Integrity, Respect for Diversity, Professionalism

OVERVIEW OF THE FUNCTIONS OF THE POST

1. Background and Rationale

Global research shows that teachers are the most important school-related factor affecting student learning[1]. Investing in high-quality teaching is thus essential, not only to achieving desired learning outcomes but to ensuring that all learners have a strong foundation for a healthy, happy and productive life. Although education policy makers and practitioners acknowledge that student well-being is closely tied to their readiness to learn and capacity to thrive, many teachers struggle to support this effectively, as they face numerous professional and personal challenges. Current teacher training is not adequately preparing teachers, as many feel unprepared to teach in diverse classrooms.

Teachers have reported a lack of adequate training for 21st century skills, including in information and communication technology skills and for developing socio-emotional competences. In a global survey among 58,000 teachers, although the majority of teachers consider it important to teach about global citizenship, 15 per cent say they cannot explain racism and discrimination to their students, and 25 per cent do not feel ready to teach human rights and gender equality. Teachers feel more confident teaching cognitive skills, and less confident and knowledgeable about behavioural learning and socio-emotional perspectives[2]. 

To address these challenges, the Asian-Pacific Resource and Research Centre for Women (ARROW), UNESCO Regional Office in Bangkok and Regional Office for South Asia, UNICEF East Asia and Pacific Regional Office and Regional Office for South Asia, UNFPA Asia Pacific Regional Office and Education International Asia-Pacific, in collaboration with the SDG4 Youth and Student Network and YPEER Asia-Pacific Centre, will organize the Regional Forum on Transforming Teachers and Teaching for Adolescent Health, Well-being and Gender Equality from 23 to 25 September 2025 in Bangkok, Thailand.

The Regional Forum will convene approximately 100 participants from 18 countries across South-East and South Asia to identify solutions for overcoming barriers and scaling innovations in teacher education and training. The focus will be on delivering impactful, skills-based, holistic health and well-being education, including comprehensive sexuality education. The Regional Forum will offer six skills-building workshops, delivered in three parallel sessions on each afternoon of Days 1 and 2 of the Forum, with a daily schedule from 13h30 to 18h00 on 23-24 September 2025. 

The skills-building workshops will aim to:

● Enhance knowledge and practical skills for the design and delivery of transformative teaching-learning content, approaches and learning spaces that support positive learning and well-being outcomes;

● Strengthen understanding and application of gender-transformative approaches in well-being education, including how teachers can challenge harmful gender norms and foster gender-equitable learning spaces;

● Amplify the voices and experiences of teachers as key agents in well-being education inclusive of CSE, and explore how education systems can better address their needs; and,

● Document and share key insights from the practitioner community to inform policymakers in education and other sectors working to advance well-being education, including CSE.

The themes of the six workshops are:

1. Age-appropriate content: teacher training for delivering foundational education for health and well-being, including comprehensive sexuality education (CSE);

2. Embedding values- clarification in teacher education and training for CSE;

3. Teacher training and support for delivering disability-inclusive CSE curricula;

4. Designing and assessing skills-based lesson plans;

5. Creating safe, gender transformative and inclusive classrooms; and

6. Delivering collaborative learning approaches focused on social and emotional learning (SEL).

The participants of the Forum’s workshops will comprise a diverse mix of Southeast and South Asia representatives from: government (specifically education sector personnel with responsibility at national level for teacher education and training, curriculum development and learning assessment), civil society implementers working with/in formal education, CSE master trainers, academia conducting CSE implementation research, youth-led/serving organizations; and, bilateral and development partners, including UN.

To lead on the design and delivery of each of the Forum's six skills-building workshops, UNESCO Bangkok seeks the services of suitably qualified Individual Specialists.

2. PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNMENT

The Individual Specialist will serve as a senior-level advisor and lead trainer for a four-hour, in-person skills-building workshop, engaging approximately 35–40 participants. The assignment entails supplying strategic direction, technical leadership, and independent, dynamic delivery of a workshop aligned with one of six thematic areas outlined in Annexes I.A and I.B of this Consultancy Call.

For each selected Forum workshop, the Individual Specialist will:

• Provide strategic advisory input to UNESCO and Forum partners on the pedagogical framing of the selected workshop;
• Conceptualize an immersive and competency-focused learning experience for participants in all their diversity;
• Guide participants in sampling evidence-informed curriculum content for achieving positive outcomes in adolescent health, well-being and gender equality;
• Model high-quality, gender-transformative and inclusive teaching-learning pedagogies that can be scaled across national teacher education and training systems;
• Provide structured opportunities for participants to practice targeted skills, through teach-back activity(ies);
• Establish a safe and respectful learning space that enables policy-relevant dialogue on complex, sometimes sensitive issues in adolescent health, well-being and gender equality;
• Moderate multi-stakeholder and multi-generational exchanges among participants to foster cross-country learning and institutional strengthening; and,
• Facilitate self- and inter-personal reflections by participants on how to apply the workshop learnings in their own national or local teacher education and training programmes and practices.

Key deliverables of the consultancy will include: a workshop package (comprising the workshop agenda, implementation plan and workshop materials), together with an analytical report summarizing the workshop’s strategic outcomes and participants’ feedback for UNESCO’s further programmatic use.

3. WORK ASSIGNMENT

Under the overall guidance of UNESCO and working with the Forum organizing partners, the Individual Specialist will undertake the following tasks:

1. Prior to the Workshop:
i. Participate in online preparatory meeting(s) to align the workshop with the Forum’s objectives;
ii. Provide advisory input on the thematic scope and delivery approach of the workshop;
iii. Draft and revise a detailed workshop implementation plan incorporating innovative and inclusive pedagogies and policy-relevant, socially transformative content;
iv. Submit the finalized workshop agenda and list of materials, including presentations, handouts, and feedback tools; indicate to the Forum organizing partners any digital and non-digital requirements for enabling efficient workshop delivery;
v. Attend an in-person, final preparatory meeting to ensure smooth delivery of the skill-building workshop(s), onsite at the Forum’s venue with UNESCO and additional Forum organizing partners.

2. During the Workshop:
i. Independently deliver the workshop, in alignment with the agreed workshop agenda and implementation plan.

3. After the Workshop:
i. Submit a finalized workshop package.

ii. Submit a summary report (max. 4 pages, excluding annexes) highlighting strategic outcomes, key insights, participants’ feedback and recommendations to UNESCO on potential follow-up actions, and integration of workshop outcomes into its broader programme frameworks on the Forum’s themes.

In line with UNESCO’s overall gender mainstreaming strategy, the Individual Specialist is expected to integrate a gender perspective in all activities and apply gender mainstreaming concepts whenever feasible.

Tasks and number of anticipated days (9 days in total)

LLLLong Description

4. TIMETABLE AND DELIVERABLES

The consultancy will be conducted from September to October 2025, concluding no later than 13 October 2025.

All deliverables must be submitted in English and reflect consolidated feedback from UNESCO and Forum partners. 

One Individual Specialist will be selected for each skills-building workshop session. The Individual Specialist is expected to arrive in Bangkok by the afternoon preceding the assigned workshop date (23 or 24 September 2025) to participate in the final preparatory meeting. The Individual Specialist is welcome, but not obligated, to join in-person for the full period of the Regional Forum.

5. LOCATION AND TRAVEL

The Individual Specialist will be home based in any location, working remotely. The Specialist will be required to travel to Bangkok during the Forum’s skills-building workshop period (23 – 24 September). The Specialist is expected to travel economy class by the most direct and economic route and receive daily subsistence allowance (DSA) at the standard rate, and which should be reduced, as necessary, when the number of days of DSA exceeds the limits stipulated in the table of rates published by the International Civil Service Commission (ICSC). DSA is only payable to individuals carrying out assignments away from their usual place of residence or work. The Individual Specialist is expected to make her/his/their own travel arrangements and will be provided with a lump sum to cover travel-related expenses in accordance with UNESCO rules and regulations. Travel-related expenses (e.g. the cost of tickets, terminal fares and DSA) must be fixed and agreed between the parties. The Individual Specialist is responsible for obtaining UNDSS security clearance prior to the mission to be facilitated by UNESCO Bangkok.

6. SUPERVISION AND REPORTING

The Individual Specialist will work under the overall authority of the Regional Director of the UNESCO Regional Office in Bangkok (UNESCO Bangkok), the overall guidance of the Chief of Education, and the direct supervision of the Regional Advisor on Education for Health and Wellbeing. In addition to the submission of contract deliverable, the Individual Specialist will routinely engage with the UNESCO Regional Advisor and Forum organizing partners through emails and virtual meetings.

7. COMPETENCIES (Core / Managerial)

8. REQUIRED AND DESIRE QUALIFICATIONS

Required Qualifications:
Education

• An advanced university degree (Master's or higher) in fields such as: student health and well-being, comprehensive sexuality education, gender-based violence or school violence prevention education, or teacher education and professional development, or other relevant discipline.
  
  

Work Experience

• A minimum of ten (10) years of extensive professional expertise and practical field experience in any of the pertinent technical domains mentioned above.

• Experience in designing and delivering capacity-building workshops for diverse stakeholders, including education programme and policy officials.

Skills/Competencies

• Excellent analytical, oral and written communication skills, for engaging both specialist and generalist audiences.
• Strong subject matter expertise (comprehensive sexuality education, gender-transformative education, school violence and bullying, social and emotional learning, pedagogy, teacher development and training);
• Highly skilled in participatory workshop design, facilitation and evaluation (in-person and remote modalities) for adult learning and training, including managing inter-personal dynamics among diverse workshop participants;
• Proficient in the use of, and possessing relevant IT infrastructure, software and devices to support remote meetings and communication, as appropriate.
• Familiarity with Microsoft Office suite or similar common applications.
  
  

Languages

• Fluency in spoken and written English.

Desirable Qualifications

Work Experience

• Strong understanding of UNESCO’s mandate and programmes on education for health and well-being.
• Experience working in the Southeast Asia and South Asia context and demonstrated cultural sensitivity.
• Prior experience of working with teachers, education administrators, teacher training institutions or educators in formal or non-formal education.
• Previous experience working with the UN and/or other multilateral, bilateral, civil society, youth or development partners.

9. APPLICATION PROCESS

Submission of Application 

Interested individuals are invited to submit the application for any two workshops (maximum), including those that may be scheduled in parallel, and requirements through the UNESCO Careers website at https://careers.unesco.org/careersection/2/joblist.ftl 

An expression of interest for more than one workshop must include a fully completed template per workshop. Submitted workshop templates will be evaluated on an individual basis. An offer by UNESCO in response to an expression of interest for one workshop template is no guarantee of an offer for a second workshop template submission by the same consultant.  

Interested candidates should click on “Apply Now” and download and complete the Employment History form (Word document) in ‘Employment History Form / My Documents’. Before uploading the submission, at the end of the Word document, please insert the extra pages with the following required information:

• An updated Curriculum Vitae (CV) and a cover letter indicating how your qualifications and experience make you suitable for the assignment, including mandatory submission of a minimum two (2) references from projects in the field showcasing proficiency in these thematic areas of the consultancy.

• Completed Workshop Outline Template (ANNEX I.B of this Consultancy Call; maximum two, A4 pages), detailing the selected thematic workshop, specific topics, learning objectives, reference sources of the workshop activities, and summary explaining the delivery approach to the workshop and how the learning objectives will be met.  
  
  
• The proposed daily rate or the amount/budget to be charged in consultancy fees for the assignment, which should be quoted in USD. The total consultancy fees should be broken down according to level of effort, time-on-task, or per output. Travel expenses should be calculated and indicated separately.

UNESCO places great emphasis on ensuring that the objectives of the work assignment, as described in the Terms of Reference, are met. Accordingly, in evaluating the proposals for the assignment, attention will focus first and foremost on the technical elements. From those proposals deemed suitable in terms of the criteria in the Terms of Reference, UNESCO shall select the proposal that offers the Organization the best value for money.  

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Additional Information

• Travel costs should be included in the financial proposal, as a stand-alone budget item.
• This contract is for a period of 5 weeks. 

Assessment

• Only applications providing the information requested in the application procedure will be considered.
• Evaluation of qualified applicants may include an assessment exercise and a competency-based interview.

Notes:

• Due to the large number of applications we receive, we are able to inform only the successful candidate(s) about the outcome or status of the selection process.
• Please submit your application through SuccessFactors. Only if you are unable to attach requirements in the system, please inform us at ed.bgk@unesco.org
• Queries of a technical nature about these TORS may be directed to: ed.bgk@unesco.org

ANNEX I.A THEMES AND SCHEDULE OF THE REGIONAL FORUM

ANNEX I.B WORKSHOP OUTLINE TEMPLATE

All Expressions of Interest submitted by suitably qualified consultants should include the fully completed template below. The completed template should not exceed two, A4 pages in Microsoft Word.

Consultants may submit an expression of interest for any two workshops (maximum), including those that may be scheduled in parallel. An expression of interest for more than one workshop must include a fully completed template per workshop. Submitted workshop templates will be evaluated on an individual basis. An offer by UNESCO in response to an expression of interest for one workshop template is no guarantee of an offer for a second workshop template submission by the same consultant.

Long Description

* Note: A gender-transformative approach and participatory learning activities must be integrated into the overall workshop design.

SELECTION AND RECRUITMENT PROCESS

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