Specialist Academic Support for Railway Operations Apprenticeships

Tenders are invited for the provision of Specialist Academic Support for Railway Operations Apprenticeships.

Since 2019, Keele University has been delivering a Senior Leader Apprenticeship and seeks to extend its provision to provide a specialist award for rail sector leaders, hereafter the SLA (Railway Ops).

The University wishes to offer two specialist rail operators start points on the apprenticeship in February and September, for a maximum of 50 learners (25 per start point) per academic year.

The Service Provider will be required to provide a comprehensive set of support services to the SLA (Railway Ops) in accordance with the Tender Specification in Section 2 of the Invitation to Tender (ITT) document.

The contract will run for a period of three years with options to extend for two further periods of one year.

The decision of whether to take up the extension options will be down to the absolute discretion of the University.

The estimated total value of the contract over its duration (including the extension options if these are taken up) is £500,000 excluding VAT.

Main reasons for the decision not to sub-divide the contract into lots: Given the need for one Service Provider to co-ordinate the delivery of all of the services required, the contract has not been divided into lots.

Award criteria Quality criterion - Name: Relevant Knowledge, Experience and Expertise of key named individuals assigned to performing the contract / Weighting: 300 marks Quality criterion - Name: Approach and Methodology for Service Delivery including risk management and quality control / Weighting: 300 marks Quality criterion - Name: Adherence to Data Security requirements in the delivery of the contract / Weighting: 100 marks Price - Weighting: 300 marks