DEVOLUTION IN ACTION: PROCUREMENT WINDOW CLOSING FOR NEW CITY REGION SKILLS PROVIDERS

Published 29 January 2021 at 2:38pm

The procurement exercise for organisations who would like to deliver provision funded through the devolved adult education budget to South Yorkshire residents closes on 2 February.

As part of its Devolution Deal, the Sheffield City Region Mayoral Combined Authority is taking responsibility for devolved Adult Education Budget (AEB) from August 1st, 2021, commissioning adult skills provision for the residents of Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham and Sheffield.

Cllr Sir Stephen Houghton CBE, Chair of the Sheffield City Region Combined Authority Education, Skills and Employability Board, said:

“This is a final call to providers who may be interested to join us on our new journey with adult education in South Yorkshire. It’s an opportunity for providers to help us shape South Yorkshire’s skills agenda in a way that best meets our local needs.”

Nigel Brewster, vice-chair of the Sheffield City Region Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP), added:

“We have more than 150 providers registered on our tender system, so we are expecting high application numbers from providers who want to be part of the transformation of our approach to local skills delivery. We’re looking forward to doing everything within our new powers to make sure our residents have the skills they need to get jobs in local businesses, including our growth industries such as advanced manufacturing and digital.

“Supporting people to find and get on in work and backing businesses to grow is critical to our region’s jobs-led recovery from the pandemic.”

Transforming adult education is part of the Mayoral Combined Authority’s Renewal Action Plan promise to give a hand up for people to improve their skills, get back to work, remain and progress in work.

Providers interested in responding to this opportunity must submit their application by tomorrow, 2 February. People can find out more about the adult education budget on the Sheffield City Region website.