A new procurement exercise for apprenticeships for non-levy paying employers has been launched after months of delay, the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) has announced.
In April, the procurement process for training providers hoping to deliver apprenticeship training to small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) was paused, with existing contracts extended to the end of the year “to maintain stability in the system”.
An ESFA statement published today states that, in contrast to the previous exercise that was “markedly oversubscribed and did not achieve the right balance between stability of provision, promoting competition and offering choice for employers”, the new tender “has been designed to ensure the Department for Education and ESFA can better meet their objectives to deliver high-quality apprenticeship training to support the growth and success of the small- and medium-sized enterprises that play such a vital role in our economy”.
The new exercise contains several changes, including new tender caps and contract award limits, awards based on current levels of geographical delivery, and an improved scoring criteria and evaluation methodology.
‘A very positive step’
Mark Dawe, chief executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP), said: “It’s really fantastic that the skills minister has listened to AELP and its members in coming forward with a solution that should strike the right balance between stability of provision, promoting competition and offering choice for employers. With potentially a near 50 per cent increase in the overall budget, this is a very positive step forward from the scrapped tender with a proper focus on existing capability and capacity in respect of good quality providers who have plenty of SMEs lined up wishing to offer apprenticeships.”
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