Northumbrian Water Training Workshop

Northumbrian Water’s requirement was to improve their staff’s bid writing skills and professional development through our training workshop. Having a good understanding of the organisation already, our general manager and head of our training department, Matthew Walker, developed an agenda for the training that was tailored to suit the requirements of Northumbrian Water’s Total Water Solutions team and the types of tenders the organisation completes.

Topics covered in the training

The training was mapped to a model bid writing process and followed the journey all the way from the pre-tender stage through to the preparation of detailed, persuasive and evidence-based tender responses. The training therefore looked not only at incremental improvements, but also enabled the team to rethink core ideas and remodel overarching processes that govern its approach to bid and tender management.

Topics covered included:

• Strategic pre-tender activity
• Modelling an effective and efficient bid/no bid process
• Bid management
• Designing and implementing win themes
• Deconstructing questions and building responses
• Using evidence
• Techniques for writing winning tenders
• Working within restrictive word limits
• The Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012.

Bespoke training

The aim of all our bespoke training workshops is always to increase the understanding, knowledge and skill set required for public sector tendering and, ultimately, to increase tender success rates. In Northumbrian Water’s group the understanding was there, and the focus was on refining the skills required to complete high-quality tender submissions and secure more contracts.

Our training courses are designed to reflect the bidder organisation’s experience and objectives in tendering; we assist both companies new to the tendering process and those who are experienced and looking to increase success rates. This is achieved via a review of the company’s current situation, paired with our expert knowledge in bid and tender writing. An external opinion helps to identify any weaknesses or opportunities for improvement, resulting in delegates gaining the most from the workshop and leaving with practical advice, skills and tools that they can directly apply to their future bids.

Feedback

Feedback from the Northumbrian Water team was that the training was “great and really informative” and “participation is the key to a good training day and we definitely did that”. We hope to continue our relationship with Northumbrian Water to support them with future bids and tenders.