TVET website development At Government of the Federated States of Micronesia

Termsof Reference

1. Background

The National Department of Education (NDOE) in the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) is implementing the FSM Skills and Employability Enhancement (SEE) Project, which is financed by the World Bank. This project has a primary goal of enhancing vocational education at the secondary level in FSM by improving access, quality, and relevance. To achieve this, the NDOE needs a service provider to design, develop, and implement a dedicated website for Career and Technical Education (CTE) and SEE Project. The scope of work for this assignment includes:

1. **Researchand analysis:**Conduct an in-depth analysis of the current NDOE website, CTE webpage, and similar websites. Perform user research with the project’s primary audience to gather insights.
2. Design: Based on research findings and analysis, design the website’s functionality. This includes creating a user-friendly and engaging interface, ensuring real-time updates and data display, and simplifying the navigation process.
3. Development: Build the website using WordPress, focusing on interactive user experience (UX) and user interface (UI) design. Ensure robust security measures are in place to protect user data.
4. Training: Develop a quick manual and provide a brief training on how to manage the website.

The selected service provider will play a crucial role in making information about CTE and SEE Project easily accessible to the target audience while maintaining a high standard of security and usability. This project aligns with the broader objectives of improving vocational education in FSM and enhancing career opportunities for its citizens.

1. Objective

Overall Objective: To develop an interactive, functional appealing website. Specific Objectives:

• Analyze similar websites and propose the best interface.
• Design the website
• Develop the website
• Provide capacity-building support

1. Scopeof work

Objective

Assignments and requirements

a. Research and Analysis

• Assess the current website structure and contents for ease of accessibility, quality of contents, user-friendliness, ease of maintenance/update, information retrieval, etc.
• Review other similar websites with application submission features to benchmark good practices in layout design, navigation, usability, website monitoring, updating and management, security assessments and frequencies, and end- to-end web development and management process flows. The examples will be shared by the PIU as references.

b. Design

• Ensure that the website design aligns with the SEE project brand strategy.
• Based on our target audience (males and females between the ages of 15 to 65, medium to lower wealth quantile, located in all FSM states), suggest a website structure and features that cater to their specific needs and effectively convey the intended communication messages.
• Collaborate closely with the SEE Project team (including the Project Manager, NDOE CTE and IT Specialists, and the Central Implementation Unit’s Communication Specialist) at crucial stages to guarantee that the branding and design are coherent with the project’s fundamental concepts.
• Develop three mock-ups to offer an excellent UI, a flexible navigation and search function, and an intuitive application process. Create a warm and inviting website that enhances accessibility to skills and services through engaging storytelling, as this is a crucial element for our audience and must be portrayed accordingly.
• Ensure that the site interface is responsive, displaying all functions consistently across various devices, including laptops, mobile phones, and tablets.
• Include a results dashboard on the landing page to display key indicators, for example: progress on performance grants implementation, overall project achievement, progress on development of FSA

c. Development

General requirements

Under the overall supervision of the ProjectManager and NDOE IT specialist, the consultant will:

• The site should followinternational accessibility standards
• Ensure that the system is optimized across all layers to minimize page load time and maintain functionality in low-bandwidth environments.
• Employ effective Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategies to improve the website’s visibility on Google’s search engine result pages (SERPs)
• Set up the Google analytics dashboard to include basic information, such as Bounce rates, Pageviews, top Referrals, etc.
• Ensure the website is easily discoverable in English.

Functionalities

• Integrate the website into the existing NDOE website and reciprocally link back to the CTE/SEE website.
• Integrate social mediacomponents, including Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.
• Implement interactive elements such as polls and surveys to encourage user engagement.

Proposed sections for the website

Note: The following proposed sections will be finalized in consultation with the Project Team. The content for these sections will be provided by the Project Team, and new sections may be added during the project’s progression.

Proposed sections: What is CTE? / SEE Project / Interactive Map / Partners / Stories / Resources / Announcements.

• What is CTE?: This section will provide a comprehensive understanding of CTE and its significance within FSM and beyond.
• SEE Project:
  • Provide detailed information about the SEE Project, its goals, and its contributions to the development of FSM’s education system.
  • Include a results dashboard on the landing page to display key indicators, for example: progress on performance grants implementation, overall project achievement, progress on development of FSA
• **Interactive Map:**Displayan interactive mapof states/schools involved in the SEEProject with categorized lists of services for each state upon selection.
• Partners: Highlight information about CTE partners and key SEEpartners with briefintroductions and links to their respective platforms.
• Stories: Feature compelling stories from thefield, including human-interest stories, images, and videos, to be shared across the CTE/SEE website, NDOE’s and partners’ social media platforms.
• Resources: Share CTE and SEE-related resources in both web-presentable and downloadable formats, optimized for low-bandwidth environments.
• Announcements
  • Events: Announce national and international CTE events for broader dissemination and participation.
  • CTE Jobs: Display job postings related to CTE and vocational education.

Capacity- building

General requirements

• Develop a brief Word Press tutorial manual
• Conduct training/demo session(s) for the PIU and NDOE on website updates and maintenance (based on the manual developed)

Browser Compatibility

The public website and the content management system (CMS) should be compatible with all browsers, supporting at least their two most recent versions.

Content Management System, software development, security and hosting

• The selected vendor should collaborate closely with the content team with the PIU/NDOE and provide a straightforward mechanism to ensure regular content updates aligned with the website design. Additionally, the vendor should offer advice on the necessary technical specifications for the content wirework.
• The vendor must adhere to the Government of FSM’s Web Security Policy and Security recommendations checklist if any.
• The vendor should conduct training sessions for the Project Implementation Unit (PIU)/NDOE focal point(s) on website maintenance and content updates.
• The source code of all versions should be delivered to the PIU/NDOE team.

Hosting

The website will be hosted by the NDOE.

Copyrights

• The domain name and all site-related matters are the copyrights and property of the PIU/NDOE.
• The source code for the website and mobile application should be handed over to the PIU/NDOE after delivering the final version.
• Handover documents, including the maintenance plan, security details, hosting information, and any other information related to the website, should be provided.

Intellectual Property

All information and assets related to the platform will be the property of the PIU/NDOE. The vendor is required to submit all source code and documentation to the PIU/NDOE.

Licensing

Open source technologies must be used to avoid any licensing costs. These details can be further refined, modified, and amended during discussions between the developer and the PIU/NDOE regarding the technical and financial aspects of the platform development.

Project Management

Weekly or as-needed check-in calls and meetings with the PIU/NDOE team during the design and build of the website will be conducted to review and provide feedback on each deliverable.

1. Assignment and deliverables

Key tasks

Expected deliverables

Timeframe/Delivery

date

Payment

1. Conduct research on the current website, user groups, required functionalities, and content / Review the examples provided by the PIU

Present design direction for approval

3 weeks

50% of total contract

2. Design 3 mock-up websites

based on designresearch, including technical review of the wireframes,

for desktop and mobile phones

Present 3 mock-up options

for selection

3 weeks

1. Build an interactive prototype of the selected wireframe
2. Conduct user testing and A/B testing with the existing website

• Finalize the interactive prototype through at least 3 roundsof testing
• Identify applicable limitations of WordPress
• Propose a centralized monitoring mechanism which should address corrective action planning to manage/mitigate

identified risksand issues.

1 week

1. Build a CMS
2. Implement the ability to display, add, and manage real-time data sources through API endpoints.
3. Develop two separate application submission systems, ensuring the safe storage of applications.

Deliver the first version of

the CMS

3 weeks

8. Develop a brief Word Press

tutorial manual

Develop a brief manual in

Word and PDF formats

End of development

phase

30% of total

contract

9. Conduct training/demo

session(s) for thePIU and NDOEon website updates and maintenance (based on the manual developed

under Task 8)

Complete the training/demo

End of development

phase

20% of total contract

10. Address and resolve all

identified bugs and issues

Provide the final website

along with the source code.

End of development

phase

11. Project management

Conduct weekly check-in calls with the PIU and NDOE team to review progress, discuss ongoing tasks, and provide feedback on deliverables during the design and build phases of

the website.

Ongoing

Total

12 weeks

1. Duration ofassignment

A total of 12 weeks (tentatively between March 2024 and July 2024)

1. Evaluationand selectionprocess

Submission evaluations will be conducted based on the outlined criteria via:

• Review of the mandatory and desired requirements
• Work samples
• Interview

1. Documentsubmission

Prospective applicants are requested to submit the following documents as part of the Expression of Interest package:

• Cover Letter and CV: A succinct cover letter (limited to one page) along with a comprehensive Curriculum Vitae.
• Three most recent and relevant work samples

1. Qualifications Mandatory requirements

• At least 10 years of experience in designing for Word Press including the latest versions.
• Experience in the development of responsive theming for desktop and mobile devices on Word Press.
• Experience in the development of information architecture and UX design.
• Visual design sensibility that is clean, simple, and sharp, with the ability to edit as needed.

Desired requirements

• Experience with website-based dashboards.
• Experience in multilingual sites with additional complexity.