Innovative Craft Design Skills Trainer and Mentor

Innovative Craft Design Skills Trainer and Mentor West Bank 

Background   

Turquoise Mountain is a non-profit, non-governmental organization established in 2006 by His Majesty King Charles III to revive traditional crafts, and historic areas and to provide jobs, skills, and opportunity through cultural heritage projects. By blending heritage buildings, education, and enterprise, Turquoise Mountain has created sustainable heritage places and livelihoods that support the revival of artisan industries. Turquoise Mountain now works in Afghanistan, Myanmar, Saudi Arabia, and the Levant. Since 2006, Turquoise Mountain has restored over 150 historic buildings, created employment for thousands of artisans and builders, built over 50 small businesses, and supported and generated over $17 million in sales of traditional crafts to domestic and international markets.   

Context   

Turquoise Mountain Levant was established first in Jordan in 2018 and leverages the cultural heritage of the region to train and educate young people in traditional crafts, deliver sustainable heritage-led regeneration for communities, and connect hundreds of artisans to new and sustainable markets. This is an exciting time for the project, as we are growing our operation to support Palestinian artisans, engage Palestinian communities in their heritage, and open up livelihoods in the craft sector from our new home in Bethlehem.  

This Role  

As part of our project, we will support a group of artisans through various project interventions to be financially and operationally sustainable by ensuring reliable incomes for them and their families and helping to preserve their craft traditions for future generations.  

For this project, Turquoise Mountain seeks to engage an Innovative Craft Design Skills Trainer and Mentor to undertake the design, development, and delivery of a 15-day Innovative Craft Design Skills Training and Mentoring Program for 40 artisans from Hebron and Bethlehem Governorates working in different Palestinian traditional craft themes including but not limited to woodworking, metalworking, leatherworking, and more.  

The selected Innovative Craft Design Skills Trainer and Mentor will provide tailored mentoring support for 5 of the trained artisans based on their needs. By the end of the training and mentoring program, the trainer and mentor will develop a general training manual for design skills working with Palestinian crafts to be used as a reference by the artisans for the aim of improving their products.  

Responsibilities  

• Collaborate with the Turquoise Mountain team in identifying and selecting 40 artisans working on the different traditional craft themes from Hebron and Bethlehem for training purposes; 
• Conduct an online/on-site rapid training needs assessment session with selected artisans to identify their actual design needs and competency level;  
• Prepare the Innovative Craft Design Skills Training Program for selected artisans based on the findings of the rapid training needs assessment including the number of training days, training outline, agenda, techniques, exercises, materials, etc. to be all discussed and approved by the Turquoise Mountain team; 

• Conduct the Innovative Craft Design Skills Training following the approved training program for all the selected artisans; 
• Develop pre-and post-evaluations/tests for each of the training modules in collaboration with the Turquoise Mountain team; 
• Collaborate with the Turquoise Mountain team in identifying and selecting 5 trained artisans working in 2-3 craft themes to receive one-to-one mentoring support;  
• Assess the mentoring needs of each of the 5 selected artisans and accordingly develop and deliver 2 working days on average of mentoring support for each of the artisans to support them in developing innovative and creative craft products/prototypes based on the knowledge and skills gained during the Innovative Craft Design Skills Training Program;  

• Develop a general training manual/curriculum for the design skills working with traditional Palestinian crafts to be used as a reference for the artisans to improve their current and future products; 
• Ensure that the Innovative Craft Design Skills Training Program and manual will be designed and delivered in a way that creates a balance between aesthetics and functionality of products, aligning product design concepts with market preferences, and preserving traditional craft techniques and authenticity; 
• Conduct 1-2 consulting sessions with relevant actors in the Palestinian craft sector for presenting and discussing the content of the training manual/curriculum and reflect all relevant improvements comments and feedback raised by the actors on the draft training manual/curriculum; and 

• Prepare a monthly progress report and one completion report in English on the implemented Innovative Craft Design Skills Training and Mentoring Program including the results of the pre/post evaluations, activities conducted, outcomes achieved, challenges faced, and recommendations for development.

جميع الحقوق محفوظة لموقع جوبس.

• At least three years of professional experience in similar assignments; previous design experience with artisans in the craft sector is necessary; 
• Excellent command of spoken and written English and Arabic languages; 

• Excellent interpersonal and communication competencies; 
• Ability to identify competencies gaps in product design; 
• Solid experience of various training and mentorship methods and approaches; 
• Flexibility and ability to work under pressure and to travel to Hebron and Bethlehem to visit the artisans’ workshops as needed, especially during the mentoring support; and 
• Solid knowledge of the craft ecosystem in Palestine.  

Contract Duration  

• 4-month consultancy contract- This consultancy assignment should be implemented in 30 working days over 4 months (Nov. 2023 – Feb. 2024) covering the Training and Mentoring Program and development of the Training Manual/Curriculum. 

Location  

• The Consultancy will be implemented in Hebron and Bethlehem Governorates. 

Application Pack 

• This application is open to all Individuals/Firms/Groups/Consortiums of Consultants who are specialized in conducting similar consultancy assignments;   
• Please submit the following in PDF format to [email protected]  (the email subject line should be: Innovative Craft Design Skills Trainer and Mentor)  

• A short technical offer illustrating previous similar experiences and proposed training/mentoring outline and methodology to approach and implement the assignment along with a concise description of key proposed sections of the manual/curriculum of the Innovative Design Skills of Traditional Palestinian Crafts. The technical offer should also include: An updated resumé/CV of all consultants proposed for carrying out the assignment in addition to at least three samples of similar deliverables that have been previously developed by the proposed consultants.  

• A financial offer at a daily rate in USD with a clear break-down of days allocated for each task in this assignment inclusive of all expenses required for accomplishing this consultancy assignment (e.g., transportation, taxes, others).