Prior Information Notice and Future Opportunity DfE Skills Bootcamps– provision for Skills Bootcamps in HGV Driving

Description

Contract(s) to provide increased HGV driver training and licences to create a pipeline of ‘road-ready’ individuals to fill vacancies in the road haulage industry. The purpose of this Prior Information Notice is to advertise this future opportunity and inform the market that, it is the Department for Education’s intention to carry out a procurement exercise to provide Skills Bootcamps to increase the delivery of HGV driver training and licences to create a pipeline of ‘road-ready’ individuals to fill vacancies in the road haulage industry. Skills Bootcamps aim to secure benefits for adults aged 19+ by giving them access to in demand skills training and a guaranteed interview with a local employer. The aim is to enable the learner to secure a more sustainable job and higher wages over time. Employers benefit from filling skills shortage vacancies and so becoming more productive, more quickly. Learning and evaluation from these initiatives will inform the development of the National Skills Fund (please click attachment for link). The objective is to award through competition, contractual agreements to one or more Suppliers to facilitate HGV driver coverage, providing training for up to 3000 participants. Suppliers must deliver the full process from recruitment of learners, through the entire training and licensing process required to become an HGV Driver. This will include components such as medical, tests and licences. We are seeking fully skilled, Skills Bootcamp participants ready to move into HGV driver positions. As a supplier you will engage with employers in the industry to secure interviews for your graduates and support them to perform well (or your own organisation in the case of employers training their own employees or training potential new recruits). For full description of notice please see uploaded attachment. Lot 1: This fully inclusive service will include: • Employer engagement to include a guaranteed interview with an employer for a genuine vacancy • Learner engagement, participant assessment of prior experience and wraparound support • The design of Skills Bootcamps for 'in demand' skills – in this case for training in HGV Driving to enable participants to acquire Cat C or Cat C and Cat C + E licences • Medical assessment • Theory test – including hazard perception and case studies practice and tests • Cat C practice and test (1 resit if needed) and full licence acquisition • Cat C and Cat C and E practice and test (1 re-sit if needed) and full licence acquisition • Any additional content in your Skills Bootcamp, for example industry tachograph training, or employer specific vehicle training, or something else that the employers you are working with have requested. It is our intention to hold a market engagement event on 30th September 2021 to discuss Department plans to roll out Skills Bootcamps in HGV Driving to meet the needs of employers by providing ‘road ready’ candidates and to increase HGV driver training to satisfy HGV vacancies in different regions of England. Please register for the event by emailing skills.bootcamps@education.gov.uk by 29th September at 12:30pm with the organisation name contact details and job titles for attendees (a maximum of two attendees per organisation) Procedure type: This is an accelerated open procedure utilising LTR provisions. Justification: DfE is utilising light touch regime, Section 74-76 of the PCR 2015 Regulations refers and as such is not subject to the full requirements of The Public Contracts Regulations 2015. The 'accelerated' procedure is in reference to the required delivery time scales. The Authority is using an accelerated timetable under section 74-76 ‘LTR’ for this procurement to increase at pace the quantity of HGV drivers to meet the increased demand of service pressures within supply chains caused by a variety of reasons including consequences from Covid-19 pandemic. Using an accelerated timetable for this procurement, will enable the Authority to award contracts to potential Contractors and commence respective training programmes, advertising training packages to general public and to start onboarding by November 2021 to tackle the sector challenges. Please see attachment for full details regarding this notice.