Course agenda
Our bidding and tendering course is a one-day workshop designed to enhance understanding of the UK public procurement process and embed practical and applicable techniques to qualify opportunities and manage bids effectively.
The course covers topics such as:
- Recognising the core purpose of the public sector tender process and how this affects a bidder’s strategy and approach
- Acts of Parliament and key legislation, including the Procurement Act 2023, and what they mean for bidders in terms of the competitive landscape
- Understanding the purpose of selection and pre-qualification questionnaires (SQs; formerly PQQs) and how to respond compliantly and successfully to these
- Effectively demonstrating your track record and experience, either through impactful case studies or an overview of the capability of key team members
- Proven bid management processes, including a link to download free of charge the bid management matrix used by Executive Compass
- Developing, maintaining and benefiting from structured bid libraries and model answers, whilst keeping responses targeted and buyer specific
- Identifying public sector opportunities and developing an effective overarching bid strategy to consistently make informed bid/no bid decisions
- Deconstructing tender questions consistently to build compliant, competitive responses and manage word or page limits set by buyers
- Fundamental understanding of good bid writing techniques, introducing the key principles of being descriptive and persuasive.
The above outline reflects the core CPD-certified agenda, but in practice we will tailor and adapt the contents to your organisation’s specific needs and outcomes. Our workshops are reinforced by practical exercises and worked ‘real-life’ examples, again tailored to your organisation and informed by bids you have completed previously, and we provide ongoing advice and support.
What you will learn
Following completion of the course, your team will be knowledgeable and confident in navigating the UK’s often complex public procurement processes. You will be able to use UK Government’s central directories for the publication of contract notices and make informed, strategic decisions about which opportunities to pursue.
Whereas participants in our half-day course will benefit from a brief overview of the key tender documentation, trainees taking part in the full-day course will receive a more in-depth and practical introduction to completing SQs (PQQs) and other essential tender documents.
You will also learn some of the fundamental tips, tricks and techniques that our own skilled and experienced bid writers apply when responding to narrative questions, building your ability to create detailed and effective responses.
As the course is accredited by CPD UK, each delegate will receive a CPD certificate with a value of circa six CPD points.
Requirement
Our one-day bid and tender writing training course is designed for organisations who want to start bidding into public sector buyers for the first time or those who have some experience but want to develop a more strategic approach for future tendering.
The course is therefore suitable for organisations at varying levels, as the content will be tailored accordingly. In particular, this course is recommend to organisations with little or no prior experience of public sector tendering or organisations looking to introduce more of their team to the process.
Delivery
Our training is delivered by bid writing experts with at least ten years’ experience, providing a practitioner’s view and therefore sharing techniques that are practical and applicable.
The training is delivered online via Teams, Zoom or equivalent, at a date and time to suit you. All training will be bespoke to your organisation rather than open for delegates from various organisations to attend, with a collaborative, workshop-based delivery methodology.
Any number of delegates can attend from a single, one-to-one basis, through to a group of delegates from across your organisation.
Contact us for a bespoke price, dependent on your requirements.
I just wanted to say a huge thank you for the training, I know my team (and me) found it very informative and it has reset the thinking on tenders within the business to a positive issue rather than one to be avoided. This is exactly what we wanted to achieve.
So much we can take away and use straight away, both in the written aspect and management – thank you!
The course was very well laid out and was set in a way where each layer added to the previous. It was an invaluable course that has given me the foundational knowledge to write tenders and progress as a bid writer.