The West Yorkshire Combined Authority (WYCA) has launched its Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS) for the provision of devolved Adult Education Budget courses and associated services from 1 August 2021.
Once admitted to the DPS, providers will be able to tender for the main mini-competition in January 2021 worth initially between £10 million and £20 million annually in respect of three Lots:
- Lot 1 – Adult Education Provision that is accessible to all West Yorkshire residents: West Yorkshire-wide delivery of provision delivered as part of statutory and policy entitlements, as well as regulated and non-regulated learning. Contract values are expected to be between £100,000 and £1,000,000.
- Lot 2 – Targeted Adult Education Provision: Targeted, specialist interventions supporting specific groups of residents, residents from particular geographic communities or with particular needs/barriers or targeted, local sector skills areas. Contract values are expected to be between £100,000 and £500,000.
- Lot 3 – Responsiveness, test pilots and supporting disadvantaged communities: Targeted, responsive and agile specialist interventions, test pilots which address skills gaps and/or trial new learning methods and accessible learning which supports disadvantaged communities. Contract values unspecified.
To join the DPS, a Request to Participate has to be submitted via the WYCA’s tender portal by 10:00 on 27 November 2020. Applications can be submitted after the initial deadline, however providers should allow 4 weeks for processing requests to join the DPS before the mini-competition is issued.
The Request to Participate is very straightforward so most organisations should be able to submit it unaided, however get in touch as soon as possible if you feel you need help with applying to join the WYCA AEB DPS.