Finding contracts in the Education Sector including Department for Education Contracts and VET contracts
The education sector is a major sector of the UK Government and Economy. Finding contract opportunities with the Department for Education is a logical way for businesses of all sizes to tap into the market. DfE contracts give you access to many business growth opportunities. Jaggaer is the contract portal used by the DfE in order to release bid, tender and contract opportunities and manage the procurement process.
In addition to Jaggaer, using Contracts Finder to find a potential tender opportunity is also a useful tool. A good strategy when undertaking a tender search is to conduct market research by searching for awarded tenders. This gives you an idea of who is operating in your market from a public contracts perspective, and what their capabilities and experience levels are. You can also use the UK Government’s ‘Find a Tender Service’ to find contract opportunities with the DfE.
When you find a tender opportunity you wish to go for, it’s always a good and necessary idea to check the mandatory criteria and requirements of the contract and bid (or framework) and ensure you can comply with them. The are generally outlined in the RFP, ITT or bid docs. After that, ensure that you have the experience and expertise to be able to put forward a decent response to the questions in the ITT.
The process for submitting a bid to the Department for Education
Our bid writers have experience in helping businesses write tailored and compelling bids to the Department for Education that win. Although the exact process varies from bid to bid, a general outline of the process includes:
- Find a suitable tender through contracts finder or register onto the DfE portal for opportunities. (as our team for assistance)
- Review the Invitation to Tender (ITT) and make sure you can comply with the requirements and specifications that are detailed.
- Write your bid or tender from start to finish. Collect supporting documentation as required and make sure your bid is compliant. Project manage the tender response so that you are sure you don’t miss anything and score well in every tender. Our bid writers can provide assistance if you require including taking care of the entire process for you.
- Submit your proposal: Ensure to allow extra time for any difficulties in the upload process. Even for seasoned bid writers, this can cause issues.
- Await the decision and answer any clarifications throughout the evaluation process. You may be invited to provide a revised offer or alternatively, additional clarifications or information. Then they will award the tender and you will know if your bid was successful as you will receive an award notice.
- Request feedback on the result if you are not successful. This will provide valuable insights into future bids and where you scored well and what you need to improve.
Documents you will need to develop in order to write winning tender to the Department for Education DfE
Compliance is key with the DfE and in addition to responding to the bid (which is often in excel or word format) you will often be asked to provide supporting documentation. You need to ensure you reference the supporting documentation clearly so that it’s easy for the reader to interpret. Examples of documentation:
- Proof of qualifications
- Financial statements to evidence your financial history
- Risk Assessments
- Project Plans
- Pricing Schedule
- Proof of testimonials
Our Guide to Writing winning Department for Education (DfE), schools and academies, VET and education tenders and bids
Department for Education tenders, as well as all bids and contract opportunities in the education industry, are generally highly competitive. You need to submit an exemplary response full of supporting evidence and a compelling offer in order to win. Our bid writers are experience in not only ensuring you comply with the requirements but that your writing is concise and your win themes shine through. Strategies and tips we use to help you win include:
- Ensure your bid has an education flavour and focus. Where you are supplying a product, or alternatively a service which spans across different sectors, you may find some of your general content doesn’t have an education focus. When bidding to the DfE, you need to ensure that your bid is tailored to the education sector and has an education flavour. Keep the students in mind as well as their needs and present your bid as a solution that solves problems in the education sector as a whole.
- Conducting a compliance check at the start and prior to submission so you have a checklist of what needs to be completed and how.
- Create another checklist for supporting documentation. Make sure your supporting documentation are tailored to the opportunity / education sector. It’s also important to put cover pages on your supporting documentation so they are well presented and clearly labelled. Cross reference your supporting documentation and other evidence you have provided within your bid, including in different responses if it is relevant.
- Don’t overly use technical terminology. The procurement personnel and experts in every and every field. You should write using concise and easy to understand language with bullet points and simple sentence structure.
- Keep an eye on clarifications and addendums: This is important as some people ask clarification questions and the result is a complete change to your response for a specific question. Be sure to keep an eye out – but at the same time – submit your bid early with enough time to spare because the upload portal isn’t full proof.
- Write a quality response to the Social Value question.
The Department for Education’s (DfE) SME Action Plan – Helping Small and Medium Businesses Win Bids
The DfE is committed to helping SMEs and businesses of all sizes win contracts and access the market. It’s one of the reasons we often encourage clients who are too afraid to bid to give it a shot. They have put some initiatives in place to make their contracts more accessible including:
- They have simplified their procurement processes so that it’s easier to bid. You will need to go through the tender and bidding process, however, there are some templates and contracts which make the process easier.
- There are market engagement events you can go to. These help with building relationships. The financial thresholds for winning bids are also less – which has been designed to ensure that the contracts can be awarded to smaller boutique businesses with less turnover but still solid financial stability.
- They have internal support for SMEs. They constantly monitor through internal processes their contracts to ensure they appeal to SMEs business. They also have guides to assist people bidding for the first time – and our bid writers are also able to assist of course.
Future contract opportunities with DfE
Contracts which are up-coming for the DfE and provide some idea of the types of bids and tenders available include:
- ITT scholarships – 2025 Re-procurement
- SKE Framework 2025 Re-procurement
- National Careers Service Digital Services – Live Service and DevOps
- National Centre for Computer Education 3 (NCCE3)
- National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics (NCETM), from 2025
- National Careers Service Digital Delivery support
- Artificial Intelligence and Data Systems
- Recruitment and Training of High Potential Trainees into Teaching (HPITT Programme)
- Advanced Mathematics Support Programme 2025
- Breakfast Clubs re-procurement
- Digital Development Testing and Architecture
- Live Running Services Apprenticeship Service
- Agile Service Delivery
- Data Science Services – Testing: Data Science utilises testing services across all programmes
- User Centred Design
How our bid writers will help you write a winning bid or tender to DfE or education frameworks and institutions
Our team of writers based in London, Manchester and Leeds, as well as remotely across the UK, are able to assist you to write education bids including to the Department for Education. We will help you:
- Write your bid response.
- Answer all of the question comprehensively.
- Write a quality social value response.
- Comply for the DfE requirements.
- Ensure that you add an education flavour to your bid.
- Develop and strategise win themes to help you deliver clear messaging.
- Submit your bid or tender.
- Identity suitable tender opportunities
- Build a bid library with AI to ensure you develop and submit bids efficiently.