The West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) have launched their third Adult Education Budget (AEB) bidding round to procure a total of £11.1m of additional AEB provision, seeking to integrate its successful Construction Gateway programme with AEB funding.
Construction Gateway (Lot 7) contracts will initially run for 12 months from February 2021 with an estimated £3.7m for the initial contract period.
Lot 7 includes:
- Focus on construction-based occupations
- Four phases of delivery and funding: Construction Gateway, Small Plant, Large Plant, Work Trial and Upskilled Sustained Employment
- Guaranteed job interview on completion
- Minimum performance level for job outcomes is 50%
- Minimum contract value is £100,000 and maximum is £650,000 unless providers can deliver across all the target skills areas in the Lot 7 Specification in which case the maximum is £1m.
The WMCA are holding a virtual question and answer session at 13:00 on 17 November 2021 to address clarification queries in respect of the tender documents or process. Providers can register to attend via the Buyer’s Club system which is being used for tender submissions (rather than the WMCA Bravo website which has been used for previous AEB bidding rounds).
Tenders have to be submitted via the Buyer’s Club system by midday on 7 December 2020.
Finally, get in touch as soon as possible if you need support with submitting a tender for the WMCA’s third procurement round as my capacity is very limited.