Call for Expression of Interest for Implementation of Basic Entrepreneurship Training (BET) and Seed Money (SM) under the Vocational Training and Employment Support Services (VTESS) project

Swisscontact is a Swiss based private non-profit foundation in international development with specialization on private sector development. Its vision is to make a sustained, effective contribution towards the reduction of economic disparities in an increasingly complex, globalized world. Its mission is to promote economic, social, and environmental development by helping people integrate into local economic life, making it possible for them to improve their living conditions through their own initiatives.

Swisscontact Laos executes its mission in Laos since January 2013 and is registered as an International NGO with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Call for Expression of Interest for Implementation of Basic Entrepreneurship Training (BET) and Seed Money (SM) under the Vocational Training and Employment Support Services (VTESS) project.

Guidelines for candidates to submit the proposal.
General
The objective of this EoI is to shortlist suitable candidates to undertake the work described in the Scope of Work in the linked document – Annex 1.

Consecutively to the EoI, the project will issue a Request for Proposal (RfP) to the shortlisted candidates inviting them to submit a more specific proposal. A more detailed ToR will then accompany the RfP.
Eligible applicants
Eligible are applicants (individuals/ organization/ consortium) with an appropriate setup (fully equipped with physical facilities and competent team members) to conduct work. The applicants must be familiar with skills development and entrepreneurship promotion, specifically, must have a track record during the past 5 years of having conducted Basic Entrepreneurship Training (BET) and/ or Seed Money (SM) provision and business coaching for business start-ups.
Content of the proposal
The language of the proposal is English. The proposal must be submitted in Microsoft Word, maximum 5 pages A4, font size Calibri 11, Standard Margin and 1.5-line spacing excluding cover page and annexes.

The request for EoI consists of two parts; Part 1: Basic Entrepreneurship Training (BET) and Part 2: Seed Money (SM). The applicants may respond either to Part 1 or Part 2, or both. Additionally, all applicants are required to fill in the section General Information.

The request is structured as a panel of questions. The applicants are required to respond to each question under their chosen Part(s).

# General Information

1.Name of the organization

2.Legal status

3.Geographic office locations in Lao PDR

4.Short introduction of the organization including an organizational profile

# Part 1: Basic Entrepreneurship Training (BET)

1.Please provide a track record of the past 5 years for BET and business coaching.

Provide the name of the assignment, name of the client, date of work undertaken and a short description of what the assignment was about (objective, beneficiaries).

2.Please describe your BET and business coaching experience of past assignments for target groups similar to the Project’s[1].

Annexes may be included by the applicant for further clarification.

#Part 2: Seed Money (SM)

1.Please provide a track record of the past 5 years for managing small-scale funding to business start-ups.

Provide the name of the assignment, name of the client, date of work undertaken and a short description what the assignment was about (objective, beneficiaries).

2.Please describe your experience in managing small-scale funding to business start-ups for target groups similar to the Project’s1.

3.What is your link to microfinance organization(s)/ programmes to leverage Seed Money – if microfinance is not core of your business already.

Annexes may be included by the applicant for further clarification.

Evaluation process

• The main part of the proposal will be taken for the evaluation only, excluding the annexes;
• All proposals submitted in a different format and/or structured other than required under paragraph Content of the proposal above might be excluded;
• Swisscontact has no obligation to provide any further information to the applicants or any other 3rd party about the evaluation process and its results.

Submission of applications

• Applicants may submit questions for clarification to the VTESS project by email to maria.claudelin@swisscontact.org until date: 15 September 2023.
• The VTESS project will respond to questions to all applicants by mail by date: 20 September 2023.
• The Final EoI must be sent to the VTESS project by email to maria.claudelin@swisscontact.org until date: 22 September 2023.
• The VTESS project will evaluate the EoIs and inform applicants; and invite qualified applicants to the Request of Proposal (RfP) round by date: 29 September 2023.(Emails will be confirmed. If no confirmation is received, re-mail and contact telephone +856 21 454 148. Questions will not be answered by phone.)

[1] Definition of the target group see Annex 1.