PCAsia is seeking an active and motivated candidate to fill the position of Specialized Trainer of a high profile and dynamic organization.
PARLIAMENTARY CENTRE OF ASIA
The Parliamentary Centre of Asia (PCAsia), established in early 2021 in Phnom Penh, is the successor of the Parliamentary Institute of Cambodia founded in 2011, a transition that reflects an expansion of activities with Parliaments across Southeast Asia and encouraged through an MoU and the Resolutions of the General Assembly of the ASEAN Inter-parliamentary Assembly (AIPA). The mandate of PCAsia is therefore to contribute to the strengthening of Southeast Asian Parliaments through capacity building of their staff, based on the demands or requests of each parliament. It draws on the expertise of national, regional, and international partners (Parliaments and research centres).
ROLE OF DEPARTMENT
The training of Parliamentary staff is at the core of PCAsia’s mission, and the Capacity Development (CD) department is responsible for carrying out the majority of this work. CD is responsible for curriculum and syllabus design for many training programmes, and its staff provides practical training and facilitation according to their respective expertise for most of the training programmes. With the transition to blended learning and learning by distance, CD staff increasingly play a facilitation role, working with external experts to design and deliver content suitable for digital platforms, then working with trainees to complete the related assignments.
Other responsibilities include mentoring and quality control of research products produced by the trained parliamentary researchers, and providing quality control technical advice with regards to newly-trained parliamentary staff members when back working in their institutions of provenance in applying their newly-acquired skills.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON THE Fiscal Analysis Capacity Training (FACT) TO ASSESS HEALTH EMERGENCY RESPONSES PROGRAMME
This training programme contributes to promoting transparent data and knowledge sharing among the parliaments in Southeast Asia. Motivated by the AIPA Resolution on “Creation of an Annual Consultative Working Group Co-facilitated by AIPA and PCAsia to Promote Transparent Data and Knowledge Sharing in Health Emergency Preparedness and Responses” adopted at the 43rd AIPA General Assembly, the programme will provide the staff of AIPA member parliaments with the principles of the state budgeting process and monitoring used to assess national impediment risks, particularly during health emergency responses. Participants will acquire the skills to produce reference information on programme costing analysis to assist parliamentarians in reviewing national finance and appropriations bills and making responsive budget legislation and policies. It is also intended to enhance parliamentary functions in oversight, monitoring, and representation, by providing information to support the decision-making process, leading to increased efficiency and accountability in dealing with impediments including corruption assessment, particularly during the time of COVID-19 and future health emergencies.
The programme has selected a total of 13 participants from the parliaments of Cambodia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Thailand.
POSITION DESCRIPTION
In order to undertake this task with high quality and relevance, the FACT programme needs a specialized trainer to provide a training course on “Macroeconomics and Fiscal Policy” to the programme participants. The role of the specialized trainer is to deliver the course on Macroeconomics and Fiscal Policy aimed at creating measurable improvements of the participants in macroeconomics understanding and analysis. The trainer is required to provide training, technical coaching, monitoring and evaluating of the trainees’ progress. The objectives of the training are as follows:
- To deliver a training course that includes both theoretical and practical concepts on macroeconomics and fiscal policy, with an introduction to cost-benefit analysis
- To equip the trainees with knowledge and understanding of the economic and fiscal interventions during crisis, and the relationship between the macroeconomy and government finances, and expenditure policy
- To apply relevant sources of macroeconomic and fiscal updates and data for practical research/report writing, and presentations
MAIN TASKS AND RESPONSIBILITIES / SCOPE OF WORK
The specialized trainer is expected to:
- Design the detailed course syllabus/curriculum/schedule on Macroeconomics and Fiscal Policy; adjusted for the ASEAN context
- Deliver the training course on Macroeconomics and Fiscal Policy and administer the training for effective learning, adopting a varied, interactive and practical approach
- Produce training materials including practical exercises and country-cases to meet the identified needs of the trainees,
- Develop detailed assessment tools and in-class evaluation (test, homework, quiz, assignment) to monitor and assess the training progress – mid-term/final term
- Provide technical coaching upon request (apart from the training sessions) to ensure learning progress
- Produce a final evaluation report after completing the course including identified challenges and lessons learnt, and provide recommendations for future improvement
- Collaborate constructively with the FACT programme team to ensure the training is effective.
TIMEFRAME
- Training duration: 32 hours, during March and April 2023 (training and coaching sessions- 3 days per week, 3-hours per session).
- Training delivery: face-to-face sessions at PCAsia training facility in Phnom Penh (online sessions may be included when necessary)
EXPECTED DELIVERABLES/OUTPUTS
The outputs to be produced from the training are:
- Course syllabus, course outlines and schedule on the subject of Macroeconomics and Fiscal Policy to meet the above objectives
- Results of the progress of the trainees using the assessment tools, class monitoring and evaluations
- Training materials (including lectures/slide presentations, practical exercises, case-studies, homework)
- A list of reading materials to support the training (textbooks, data sources, additional reading materials, glossary)
- Training delivery within the suggested timeframe
- Final report of the training including assessment of the trainees’ progress, challenges that arose in the training and recommendations for future improvement.
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS, SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE
Essential
- A master’s degree or higher in Economics, Public Finance, Development Economics, or related fields. PhD is preferable
- A minimum of five years of experiences in providing training/lectures and/or conducting research on macroeconomics, economic policy analysis, government expenditure analysis or related fields
- Proven experience in designing and administering training courses, developing training materials and assessing progress of students
- Experience in quantitative analysis and data arrangement, knowledge of how to work with statistics and data in Ms. Excel
- Strong understanding of economic and fiscal interventions, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, in different member states of ASEAN
- Understanding of economic and social issues in the ASEAN context would be an advantage
- Strong spoken and written English proficiency.
Application Information
Interested applicants should send a cover letter and CV to [email protected] with “Macroeconomics and Fiscal Policy Specialized Trainer” for the PCAsia in the subject line and indicate the fee expectation in the email message. The application deadline is 24 March 2023. Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.