Adult Skills Fund Course Delivery

East Durham College is looking to secure a maximum of 1 organisation to deliver adult education courses to people aged 19 years and over who live in postcodes within the North East Combined Authority area.

The contract value will be based on an 80/20 split. The full contract value will be £125,000 - Tenderers are invited to bid for the contract value stated that they can effectively deliver within the specified contract requirements. This may be split as incremental awards throughout the academic year dependent on achievement of deliverables.

Adults must live in an address with a North East Combined Authority postcode, it is not the delivery location. Provision is expected to be part-time and must be linked to the North East Combined Authority Strategic Aims for each area. East Durham College is only seeking provision in subject sector areas 4 (Engineering) and 5 (Construction), which moves adults either directly into jobs or closer to the employment market. We will not accept large volumes of employability provision or distance learning. We would expect all the funded provision to be ASF funded and not Free Courses for Jobs.

The training must be delivered in full by the contracted training provider, i.e. only one level of sub-contracting is permitted, no second level subcontracting is permitted. The quality of provision and subcontractor financial health will be paramount as the College will retain responsibility to the North East Combined Authority and OFSTED for programme quality. Financial health and inspection outcomes are mandatory elements of the assessment process which can lead to instant exclusion from the tender process. Where a credit rating shows an above average risk or an Ofsted outcome is less than Good, we will reject a tender unless there are exceptional circumstances given. Where these are given, the college will require a face to face meeting for further investigation of evidence to decide whether the tender can go forward for further review.

The estimated contract value reflects the funding value of learning to be delivered and will be subject to a management fee which will not exceed 20%.

Providers must have experience of delivering provision to meet local skills needs and be able to provide verified data in the following areas:

The positive progression must be into employment, further learning or improved prospects. We are not looking to deliver generic employability programmes.

We will only look to contract with providers who have a history of delivering in the North East and they must have a permanent base in the North East.

We will not accept tenders from organisations based outside of the geographical area who intend to rent premises to undertake his delivery. Checks will be carried out to ascertain longevity of operation in the North East.