Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada

Call for Applications:  Short-term Service Contract for Experts in Asian Business and Culture

The Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada (APF Canada) is seeking three experts in Asian business and related cultural practices on a service contract agreement to assist in developing content for a course entitled Asia Competence for Tech Professionals. The course will be delivered virtually, and participants will include recent STEM and business graduates and young professionals.

Project Background

APF Canada is a non-partisan national not-for-profit organization focused on building Canada's relations with Asia. Since 2013, we have been active in supporting the development of 'Asia competence' – the knowledge, skills, and experiences that help make individuals and organizations more effective in engaging with partners in and from Asia. The Asia Competence for Tech Professionals e-learning course is co-funded by the Digital Technology Supercluster and three corporate partners: Canfor, Mosaic Forest Management, and Teck Resources.

Project Description

The course will introduce participants to the cultural practices and other practical know-how needed to engage with selected Asian countries, using the natural resources and environmental technology sectors as the context for our case studies. The course's structure will be as follows:

1. Self-paced e-learning modules: Approximately 12 ten-minute units on:
   1. Understanding and engaging Asia
   2. Navigating China as Asia's largest natural resources and clean technology market
   3. Exploring South Korea as Asia's champion of green growth
   4. Tapping Southeast Asia's biggest market, Indonesia
2. Cultural awareness training: Simulations with which participants will practice what they have learned from the self-paced modules and refine their cross-cultural communication and negotiation skills.
3. Virtual networking event: Participants connect with each other and invite stakeholders and businesspeople from the Canada China Business Council (CCBC), the Canada Korea Business Association (CKBA), the Canada-ASEAN Business Council (CABC), and others. (Contractors are welcome but not obligated to join this portion of the course.)

Approximately 100 individuals will participate in the course. Up to 30 will be from the project's corporate partners. The remaining participants will be drawn from aspiring young professionals and recent graduates and will include those from rural and Indigenous communities, women, and other underrepresented groups.

Scope of Work

The independent service contractor will be responsible for:

• Advising APF Canada in developing three short self-paced e-learning units on their market of expertise will provide insights into the demographic, economic, and other factors that shape that market's business context and knowledge of culturally appropriate business practices for that country. ( 5 hours)
• Developing a short business case/business scenario for use in live virtual cultural awareness training. The case/scenario (approx. 4-5 pages) will help participants apply cross-cultural knowledge they have learned in the course to a typical business situation or scenario in the contractor's country of expertise. Guidelines for developing the business case will be provided. The independent service contractor will be expected to join APF Canada and the other two contractors in a brainstorming session on how best to structure and focus the business cases/scenarios. ( 35 hours, including meeting times)
• Facilitating a discussion with course participants of the business case during virtual cultural awareness training sessions. The independent service contractor will facilitate five 45-minute virtual discussions of their business case/scenario with groups of 20 participants. These sessions are tentatively scheduled to take place on three Saturdays in October: Oct. 15 (two trainings – one morning, one afternoon), 22 (two trainings – one morning, one afternoon), and 29 (one training – time TBC). ( 10 hours)

 

The application deadline is July 5, 2022, at 11:59 p.m. PT. Interested applicants are encouraged to submit their applications before the deadline, as APF Canada will begin reviewing and contacting qualified applicants on a rolling basis.

Eligibility

 

• We are seeking experts to assist us in developing content for one of the following markets: South Korea, China, or Indonesia. The ideal candidate will be familiar with those countries' natural resources and environmental technology sectors.
• The independent service contractor will ideally have an advanced degree in international business and experience as an instructor.
• The independent service contractor must be eligible to work in Canada. And as part of our legal obligation under the Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA) and consistent with APF Canada's Vaccination Policy, requiring all staff, future staff, and service contractors to be dual-vaccinated. Such vaccination requirement is subject to APF Canada's duty to accommodate under applicable human rights legislation.

 

Start/End Dates

 

The total estimated time to complete the work is approximately 50 hours. This work will take place from July 2022-October 2022 and include the three items described in the Scope of Work.

 

Compensation

 

The independent service contractor will receive a maximum contract price of C$6,000.00 to cover work hours and expenses involved in conducting brainstorming sessions with APF Canada; developing the modules and business cases; and delivering the virtual training. We estimate the total time for this work to be approximately 50-60 hours.

Application Procedures

 

Interested independent service contractors should submit and include the following documents as a one MERGED PDF file. Incomplete applications will not be considered. 

 

• One-page (maximum) cover letter;
• Résumé detailing your relevant experiences and qualifications

 

Applications will be considered on a rolling basis, and early submission is encouraged. This posting will stay open until July 5, 2022, at 11:59 p.m. PT. Interested applicants are strongly encouraged to submit their applications before the deadline, as APF Canada will begin reviewing applications as they are received.

 

Please be sure to add notifications@app.bamboohr.com to your contact list to ensure delivery of all correspondence from us.

 

For questions, please get in touch with Charles Labrecque at Ms. Erin Williams at erin.williams@asiapacific.ca or Mr. Suryo Nugroho at suryo.nugroho@asiapacific.ca