NEWS IN BRIEF

The Government has just published guidance on how to help departments encourage contractors to provide skills training and apprenticeships in all publicly let contracts.

The guide - Promoting Skills Through Public Procurement – was published last week by the Office of Government Commerce. It provides practical advice on how to embed skills training and apprenticeships in all aspects and stages of the procurement process. It covers all types of public contracts for products and services from facilities management and IT to construction.

The guide advises anyone responsible for procurement on:

• how they can work within UK and EU regulations to include skills and apprenticeship requirements in public procurement processes as long as the requirements are relevant, proportionate, don’t compromise value for money and don’t unfairly discriminate against prospective contractors
• how they can promote skills and apprenticeships at each stage of the procurement process, from the initial identification stage right through to the contract management stage
• case studies and illustrations of where authorities have successfully embedded skills and training opportunities in their procurements

The guidance builds on last summer’s commitment that all employees working on central Government contracts should have access to basic literacy and numeracy skills training if they need it.

To read the document, go to: www.dius.gov.uk/skillsprocurement.