TRAINEESHIP FUNDING WITH SHORT DEADLINE

1. Title: TRAINEESHIP FUNDING WITH SHORT DEADLINE2. Awarding Authority: Department for Education, GB. Web: 3. Contract type: Service contract4. Description: Training providers have been given less than three weeks to bid in the government’s much-anticipated tender for 19 to 24 traineeship funding.The Education and Skills Funding Agency yesterday launched an “accelerated” bidding process worth an initial £65 million to expand the provider-base for adult traineeships.A deadline of 28 October has been set for applications. The ESFA intends to award contracts in January 2021.The initial funding period will be from 1 February until 31 July 2021 – the deadline chancellor Rishi Sunak has set for tripling the number of traineeships to help boost the economy after Covid-19.The ESFA’s tender documents, seen by FE Week, state that the total funding to be allocated to successful contractors for the initial period will be £65 million across nine regions in England (see table below).This funding is expected to deliver “a total of circa 20,000 traineeship starts by eligible learners between 1 February 2021 and 31 July 2021”.The total procurement has contracts worth £233.5 million up until 31 July 2023, and there will be options to extend the funding up to £380.5 million.The ESFA said this will be a “very competitive exercise” and so to mitigate significant oversubscription and “speculative” bidding, the agency has set tender caps that “take into account the experience and potential capacity of potential contractors”.Caps will be set at £1 million for brand new providers, £2 million for current subcontractors, and £3 million for existing providers.In order for their bid to be successful, potential contractors will need to “demonstrate how they can quickly establish strong relationships with employers, Jobcentres, the National Careers Service, Local Enterprise Partnerships and other local partners to recruit learners, including through referrals from Jobcentres, and to tailor the traineeship programme to real-time needs of the Learner and local labour market”.The procurement was supposed to run over the summer but was delayed owing to a “significant amount of due diligence” that needed to be taken, the ESFA previously said.5. CPV Code(s): 80500000, 80521000, 80530000, 800000006. NUTS code(s): UKD, UKD3, UKD337. Main site or location of works, main place of delivery or main place of performance: North West (England), Greater Manchester, Manchester.8. Reference attributed by awarding authority: Not provided.9. Estimated value of requirement: The total procurement has contracts worth £233.5 million up until 31 July 2023, and there will be options to extend the funding up to £380.5 million.10. A deadline of 28.10.2020.11. Address to which they must be sent: For further information/documentation regarding the above contract notice please visit: 12. Other information: TKR-20201016-EX-1478426# funding opportunity