CONTEXT

The European Institute of Cooperation and Development (Institut Européen de Coopération et de Développement in French or IECD) is a French non-governmental organization founded in 1988 and operating in the field of social and economic development. IECD’s main sectors of action are education, vocational training, youth employability and support to small enterprises. IECD is present in Sub-Saharan Africa, Indian Ocean, Middle East, North Africa and Southeast Asia, where it operates in partnership with local institutions.

Apprentis d'Auteuil (AA) is a French Catholic Foundation that supports underprivileged youth and promotes access to quality education and training that enables everyone to integrate into society as free and responsible adults. The Foundation has worked in France for nearly 150 years and for more than twenty years in other parts of the world. Internationally, the Foundation chooses to work in partnership with organizations that share the same values and dedication to supporting disadvantaged youth, on several fronts:

• Child protection
• Education and schooling
• Early childhood
• Support to parenthood
• Socio-professional integration

Among the programs of the latter, since 2013, Apprentis d'Auteuil has been developing the "ouvre-boite" program in several French cities, a long-term support program for young people with few or no qualifications who are starting out in entrepreneurship.

Project FIPESA

Since January 2020, AA and IECD have been collaborating on a common project called FIPESA. The overall objective of FIPESA is to further develop social entrepreneurship in Southeast Asia by improving the model of social businesses that train disadvantaged youth and accompanying youth towards waged employment or entrepreneurship.

One of the activities of the project entails the experimentation and piloting of a micro enterprise incubator mechanism to support young graduates from vocational training centers in finding work through self-employment.

IECD in Vietnam

IECD has been working in Vietnam since 2010, in the fields of entrepreneurship and vocational training. Four projects are currently implemented in the country:

• “La Boulangerie Française” (LBF) French Bakery Schools: LBF HCMC was created in 2016. It is inspired by the Hue French Bakery & Pastry School, founded in 1999 and also supported by IECD since July 2015. LBF HCMC is a cooperation project between IECD and Thu Duc College of Technology (TDC). It is located at the TDC Campus in Thu Duc Municipality, within the urban area of Ho Chi Minh City. The initiative helps vulnerable Vietnamese youngsters to secure employment by providing an intensive 20-month training in Bakery and Pastry at the highest standards of qualification, as well as English and life skills lessons. To date, 36 young people graduated from LBF HCMC. To ensure its economic sustainability, LBF HCMC operates as a social enterprise since early 2019.
• Support to Micro and Small Enterprises (MSE): The project supports small entrepreneurs working in the informal sector. The “Top Sales” course is the cornerstone of the project, which focuses on training for “sedentary” entrepreneurs and street vendors (>70% are women) who experience a particularly unstable situation in Vietnam.
• The Association of Southeast-Asian Social Enterprises for Training in Hospitality & Catering (ASSET-H&C, www.assethc.org): ASSET-H&C is a regional network of vocational training centers that prepare disadvantaged students for a career in tourism, hospitality, or catering. The members of ASSET-H&C operate a hotel, restaurant, cafe, or bakery shop to enable students to practice their skills in real life settings and to generate funds to finance part of the training, which is totally free for students who otherwise would not be able afford an education. The network currently gathers 13 schools across Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam.
• Seeds of Hope electricity training project: IECD accompanies 3 vocational schools in the improvement of their electricity and automotive maintenance training.

Identified issue

Most LBF alumni found job opportunities as employees in the formal sector. However, after some time working in urban areas, some of them are willing to go back to their home community in provinces – sometimes also under the pressure of their family (especially for the female graduates). Due to a lack of job opportunities that would allow them to use their bakery skills, some of the youths are keen to start their own business.

Without any prior entrepreneurship training, they may however have a simplistic idea of the requirements to create and manage a small enterprise – as IECD’s experience in supporting small and micro entrepreneur’s shows. They will therefore be likely to make basic mistakes (absence of market study, confusion of own resources and enterprise’s resources, etc.) compromising the success and sustainability of their activity, and consequently their own financial situation.

Proposed solution

To address this issue, IECD and AA plan to design and pilot a micro enterprise incubator mechanism that addresses the specific needs of disadvantaged youth graduating from a hospitality or catering vocational training center in order to allow them find work through self-employment.

The incubator will be built on a “turnkey” concept to allow beneficiaries to launch their entrepreneurship project based on pre-defined concept and standards.

The initiative will be implemented in two main phases:

• Preliminary study aimed at creating a turnkey bakery business concept for young entrepreneurs
• Implementation of the incubator mechanism over a period of maximum 9 months

The mechanism will entail a training at LBF HCMC focusing both on bakery and entrepreneurship skills and follow up of 5 beneficiaries while they launch and operate their business in their communities.

PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNMENT

The purpose of the assignment is to conduct the preliminary study that will inform the second phase of the initiative.

The study will mainly focus on defining

• The product offering for beneficiaries’ micro-business
• The practical steps to launch and operate a food micro-business
• The training approach to be taken in order to equip beneficiaries with the skills required to launch and successfully operate a food micro-business

High attention will be paid to the replicability of the initiative in order to repeat it in other contexts if the pilot is successful. Therefore, thorough documentation of the whole process will be paramount.

SCOPE OF WORK

The consultants conducting the study will carry out following main activities.

Activity 1: To create a food micro-business concept that meet specifications.

After studying the context, the consultant will create a concept of food micro-business that will meet beneficiaries’ needs and constraints.

To do so, the consultant will consider:

• The taste of a local customer base: simple product(s) that would appeal to Vietnamese customers, especially those living in beneficiaries’ home communities (generally outside of big urban centers).
• Costs: beneficiaries’ investment capacities will be a key element and the product offering should be conceived in a way that makes the business launch as inexpensive as possible.
• Beneficiaries’  skillset:  the product(s) offered  should reflect  beneficiaries’  bakery  skills  and distinguish themselves from products offered by unskilled entrepreneurs.

Simplicity, modularity, and flexibility should be key guiding principles to developing the offering.

• Simplicity: simple processes that beneficiaries can really master.
• Modularity: the offering should give some entrepreneurial leeway to allow beneficiaries add more products in a second stage if they wish so.
• Flexibility: the framework should be solid and, at the same time, allow flexibility in implementation, especially for the first pilot.

Activity 2: To design a framework for the implementation of the incubator mechanism.

The consultant will define modalities and create processes for:

• Beneficiary recruitment: the process will include some entrepreneurship awareness activities (e.g., work on a mini business plan) in order to ensure that applicants are solid candidates with a good understanding of what entrepreneurship entails before joining the initiative.
• Training delivery and more specifically
  
  • Approach to be taken in order to equip beneficiaries with the skills required to launch and successfully operate a food micro-business. The training will be delivered by LBF and MSE trainers. As much as possible, the training will be combined with real life scenarios (event, test sale, etc.).
  • Expected learning outcomes
  • Training content for both bakery and entrepreneurship training
  • Duration of the training and training schedules
• Follow up of beneficiaries and more specifically
  
  • Support offered to beneficiaries (onsite and on distance)
  • Follow up plan (what should be monitored, how, when)

Activity 3: To design and establish a framework for the implementation of beneficiaries’ business

After studying legal requirements to establish a micro-business in Vietnam, the consultant will define the practical steps to launch and operate beneficiaries’ micro-businesses and create tools to support beneficiaries in doing so (cost price calculation tool, stock management tool, etc.).

A takeover between the consultant and the person in charge of implementing the framework will be organized during the last days of the assignment. The consultant will transfer all the necessary information and resources to ensure that the framework will be implemented smoothly.

The consultant will also be involved in the selection of the 5 beneficiaries who will be granted seed funding to launch their business (after the training phase).

Activity 5: Support the evaluation of the project.

The consultant will be expected to actively participate in the evaluation of the initiative at the end of the project.

EXPECTED OUTPUTS AND DELIVERABLES

CONSULTANT’S RESPONSIBILITIES

• Develop and submit a proposal which meets the ToR’s requirements.
• Develop a detailed food micro business concept and business incubator mechanism in consultation with AA and IECD teams.
• Work closely with and under the guidance of AA and IECD teams.
• Report on regular basis to the steering committee1 created to pilot the incubator initiative and join steering committee meetings.
• Ensure that rules and procedures of IECD’s financial guidelines are followed.
• Ensure that all of the expected outcomes/deliverables stated in the ToR are achieved to a high quality within the agreed timeframe.
• Create a positive and respectful working environment and maintain a professional relationship with the parties and stakeholders involved in the initiative.
• If deemed relevant, travel to provinces to conduct market research.
• Be in charge of his/her own private/personal health insurance and make sure all legal obligations (insurance, declarations, taxes etc.) related to this activity are fulfilled.
• Be in charge of his/her own travelling expenses inside Vietnam throughout this mission.

IECD’S RESPONSIBILITIES

• Provide consultants with all necessary documents.
• Prepare the contracts and other relevant documents.
• Support consultants in conceptualizing the incubator mechanism. More specifically, the various teams involved in the initiative will provide support and information to the consultant according to their area of expertise:
  
  •  LBF: Product development, training methodology (for the bakery part), target audience
  •  MSE & AA: Beneficiary recruitment process, training methodology (entrepreneurship), follow up process

MINIMUM QUALIFICATION OF THE CONSULTANT