Current vacancies

Contract Duration – 9.5 months

Working arrangement: remote with travel

UNICEF works in over 190 countries and territories to save children’s lives, defend their rights, and help them fulfill their potential, from early childhood through adolescence.

At UNICEF, we are committed, passionate, and proud of what we do for as long as we are needed. Promoting the rights of every child is not just a job – it is a calling.

UNICEF is a place where careers are built. We offer our staff diverse opportunities for professional and personal development that will help them reinforce a sense of purpose while serving children and communities across the world. We welcome everyone who wants to belong and grow in a diverse and passionate culture, coupled with an attractive compensation and benefits package.

Visit our website to learn more about what we do at UNICEF.

For every child, the right to care

How can you make a difference?

The UNICEF Global Education Practice Data, Economics and Assessment for Learning and Skills Team is committed to supporting governments and partners to ensure that all children acquire foundational learning skills, including foundational literacy, numeracy, socio-emotional competencies, and other transferable skills needed to thrive in a rapidly changing world. Achieving this goal requires not only the collection of high-quality learning assessment data but also the effective use of that data to inform policies, programmes, professional development, and teaching and learning practices.

Across many contexts, learning assessments generate valuable information on children's learning outcomes; however, challenges remain in translating assessment results into actionable insights that can guide decision-making at national, sub-national, school, and classroom levels. Strengthening the quality, interpretation, and use of learning assessment data is therefore a key priority for improving education system performance and learning outcomes.

UNICEF supports countries in the design, implementation, analysis, and utilization of learning assessments to better understand learning levels, identify inequities, monitor progress, and inform targeted interventions. This work includes foundational literacy and numeracy, socio-emotional learning, transferable skills, and emerging areas such as green skills including environmental knowledge and climate resilience competencies. Increasingly, UNICEF is also supporting the integration of learning assessment within digital learning environments, including the use of digital assessment tools, learning analytics, and responsible applications of artificial intelligence (AI) to strengthen assessment design, data analysis, and the use of evidence for decision-making.

The consultant will provide technical expertise to support UNICEF’s work on the assessment and measurement of learning and skills. This will include developing a series of global mappings of best practices in assessment design, implementation, and use, as well as documenting approaches to measuring socio-emotional learning (SEL) and other transferable skills, including in humanitarian contexts; green skills including environmental knowledge and climate resilience competencies; digital skills, including AI-related competencies; and learning outcomes assessed through and within digital and AI-enabled solutions. The consultant will also contribute to the development of tools, guidance, and capacity-strengthening initiatives to enhance the use of learning assessment evidence for improving educational outcomes for all children in both development and humanitarian settings and, where relevant, building on existing tools, such as the Global Framework on Transferable Skills. The consultant will contribute knowledge and expertise towards cultivating greater consensus on the taxonomy on skills. The consultant will provide technical support to up to six countries, including SEA-PLM participating countries as needed, to strengthen the implementation and use of SEL and transferable skills assessments, with the aim of improving skills development and informing policy and practice. This will include drawing on global and regional best practice and tools to develop an option SEL module that participating countries could choose to implement as part of SEA-PLM 2029. The consultant would work closely with the SEA-PLM Secretariat (which UNICEF co-chairs) to draft this.

If you would like to know more about this consultancy, please review the complete Terms of Reference here:   ToRTMC0004173.pdf

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have:

Minimum requirements:

• Education: Advanced degree in education, educational measurement, statistics, assessment, psychology, data science, or a related field
• Work Experience:

• At least six years of professional experience in learning assessment and skills measurement, including assessment design and implementation, framework development, data analysis and interpretation, evidence synthesis, best-practice mapping, and reporting and use of learning outcomes to inform policy and practice.
• Demonstrated experience in the assessment and measurement of socio-emotional learning (SEL), transferable skills, digital skills, green skills, and/or other emerging competency domains, including familiarity with relevant conceptual frameworks, taxonomies, and measurement approaches.
• Proven experience conducting research, landscape reviews, global mappings, technical studies, and the development of guidance, tools, frameworks, or knowledge products related to learning assessment and skills measurement.
• Demonstrated knowledge of innovative approaches to learning measurement, including digital assessment tools, learning analytics, adaptive assessment, and the responsible application of artificial intelligence (AI) in assessment design, implementation, data analysis, and evidence use.
• Experience providing technical assistance to governments, education stakeholders, and development partners on learning assessment systems, capacity strengthening, and the use of assessment evidence to improve education policies, programmes, and learning outcomes.

• Skills:

• Proven track record of collaboration with Ministries of Education, national assessment units, regional assessment bodies, and development partners, particularly in low- and middle-income countries.
• Strong understanding of learning assessments and assessment systems, including the measurement of foundational learning, transferable skills, and emerging competency areas.
• Demonstrated experience in strengthening institutional capacity and supporting the institutionalization and sustainable use of learning assessment systems and expertise.
• Strong analytical, technical writing, facilitation, and training skills, with the ability to communicate complex technical concepts effectively to policymakers, practitioners, and non-specialist audiences.
• Excellent stakeholder engagement and coordination skills, with demonstrated ability to work across multidisciplinary teams and multiple country contexts.

• Language Requirements:
  • Fluency in English is required.
  • Working knowledge of French is desirable.
• Desirables:

• Experience supporting learning assessment initiatives in both development and humanitarian settings, including fragile and crisis-affected contexts.
• Familiarity with regional and international learning assessment programmes and frameworks, including transferable skills and socio-emotional learning assessment initiatives.
• Experience linking large-scale assessments with classroom-based, formative, and digital assessment approaches.
• Familiarity with the assessment of non-academic domains, including socio-emotional learning (SEL), mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS), climate and environmental competencies, and digital and AI-related skills.
• Experience working with international organizations, research institutions, or regional assessment programmes.

For every Child, you demonstrate...

UNICEF’s Core Values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust and Accountability and Sustainability (CRITAS) underpin everything we do and how we do it. Get acquainted with Our Values Charter: UNICEF Values

UNICEF promotes and advocates for the protection of the rights of every child, everywhere, in everything it does and is mandated to support the realization of the rights of every child, including those most disadvantaged, and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, minority, or any other status.

UNICEF encourages applications from all qualified candidates, regardless of gender, nationality, religious or ethnic backgrounds, and from people with disabilities, including neurodivergence. We offer reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. throughout the recruitment process. If you require any accommodation, please submit your request through the accessibility email button on the UNICEF Careers webpage Accessibility | UNICEF. Should you be shortlisted, please get in touch with the recruiter directly to share further details, enabling us to make the necessary arrangements in advance.

UNICEF does not hire candidates who are married to children (persons under 18). UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination based on gender, nationality, age, race, sexual orientation, religious or ethnic background or disabilities. UNICEF is committed to promote the protection and safeguarding of all children. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check, and selected candidates with disabilities may be requested to submit supporting documentation in relation to their disability confidentially.

Qualified candidates are invited to submit the following documents via the online recruitment portal, TMS (Talent Management System):

• An up-to-date TMS profile and curriculum vitae (CV)
• Cover letter
• A separate financial proposal (only acceptable in the format of the linked template) Financial proposal TMC0004173.xlsx

Remarks:  If the TOR or financial proposal documents are not visible on certain recruitment platforms, please visit our official page Vacancies | UNICEF Careers.  

UNICEF does not charge a processing fee at any stage of its recruitment, selection, and hiring processes (i.e., application stage, interview stage, validation stage, or appointment and training). UNICEF will not ask for applicants’ bank account information.

All UNICEF positions are advertised, and only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.

Additional information about working for UNICEF can be found here.