Procurement process for Awarding Organisations to deliver T Levels

Market Engagement

The purpose of market engagement is to engage with Awarding Organisations before starting the procurement to understand the market and what Awarding Organisations can offer.

The Institute will carry out some form of market engagement with potential Awarding Organisations, either by the way of an event, sharing draft ITT documents for the market to provide feedback and/or a survey.

Invitation to Tender (ITT)

This is the start of a formal competitive tendering process, whereby Awarding Organisations are invited to provide offers and bid for work. The ITT documents are published and include (but not limited to):

• Terms of Participation
• Service Requirements
• Contract
• Evaluation Methodology
• Selection & Award Questionnaires
• Pricing Schedule
• Conflict Interest Declaration

These documents set out what services we are looking to procure, as well as the evaluation process that is to be followed. Potential Awarding Organisations wanting to bid for the work will have to answer a series of questions to ensure that it has sufficient economic and financial standing to deliver the Services under the contract; that is has suitable organisational and operational capability and capacity to deliver the Services; and has both competitive pricing and demonstrated high quality plans to deliver the Service.

Bids Submitted & Evaluated

When bids have been completed and submitted by potential Awarding Organisations, the Institute will evaluate all the bids received (as set out on the Evaluation Methodology document).

Governance

The Institute will put forward its recommendations based on the outcome of the evaluation through its governance to be signed off.

Contract Award

Bidding Awarding Organisations will be notified of the outcome, and those who are successful will be notified as the preferred Awarding Organisation for the tender and awarded the contract. A period of at least 10 days will have to pass between the notification of the contract award and the signing of the contract.

The role of Ofqual during the T Level procurement process

It is a mandatory requirement that the Awarding Organisation who is selected to provide the services under this procurement must be recognised by Ofqual to deliver the relevant Technical Qualification at the point of contract award. 

If an Awarding Organisation is already recognised by Ofqual (for any qualification), the tender response will be treated as an application for extended recognition to offer the Technical Qualification for that specific pathway. The tender response will provide the required information to Ofqual for that process.

Awarding Organisations that are not currently recognised by Ofqual for any qualification will be required to have submitted their application to Ofqual for recognition prior to the point of submission of their tender response to a T Level procurement.

Next steps after Contract Award

Once the contract has been awarded to the successful Awarding Organisation, they will have a period of time (up to 12months) to develop the Technical Qualification, for which they have been successful.

The Awarding Organisation will then have up to a further 12 months to work with schools and colleges to ensure they are ready to teach the Technical Qualification. The Technical Qualification will then be taught at the start of that academic year.

Bidding for a Technical Qualification

The procurement of T Levels is managed through the Institute’s e-tendering portal Proactis / ProContract.

If you are an Awarding Organisation and interested in developing and delivering a Technical Qualification register an account on the tool via Proactis/ProContract portal environment.

There is no charge for registering an account on the portal environment, and to take part in the Institute’s purchasing activities going forward, you must have an account registered on the portal.

Support is available to help potential suppliers to understand and use the system.