Tenders

Invitation for tender for Evaluation of the Skills Bootcamps Programme

Enterprise Cheshire and Warrington (ECW), a council-owned organisation, works alongside elected leaders to make the region the healthiest, most sustainable, inclusive, and growing place in the country.

We collaborate with the three local councils, industry leaders, and community partners to shape economic and transport strategies, deliver skills and employment training and business support, and ensure that the voice of business is heard in local decision-making. Through its Marketing Cheshire division, ECW also champions the region as an outstanding place to live, work, invest, study, and visit.

Skills Bootcamps is a Department for Education (DfE) funded programme of short training sessions focused on intermediate (A-Level or equivalent) level skills but not necessarily full qualifications. The skills bootcamp programme addresses the key Cheshire and Warrington skills and employment challenges of encouraging more employer investment in skills and increasing the numbers of local residents with Level 3 skills.

The bootcamps must be designed around the needs of employers to help recruit or train existing staff and provide individuals with the skills needed to move into work or progress in work. The skills bootcamps can also support self-employed people to develop the skills they need for their business. Every bootcamp must be designed in consultation with employers and at the end of each bootcamp employers must be prepared to offer job interviews to unemployed learners or opportunities to change the nature of existing jobs for learners.

The Cheshire and Warrington Skills Bootcamp programme is growing in strength.  The Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) ran programmes in 2022/23 (£1.04 million budget) and 2023/24 (£1.2 million budget) and ECW has continued to run the programme from 2024/25.  The budget in 2024/25 was £2.5 million and in 2025/26 is £10.5 million. A wide range of local employers in a variety of sectors have worked with skills bootcamp providers to co-design, and in some cases, co-deliver training.  A number of local partners have also worked with ECW to help market skills bootcamps and local Jobcentres have played a key role in matching local residents who are claiming benefits with skills bootcamps.

Specification

ECW seeks to appoint an experienced and independent evaluation provider to deliver a focused and practical assessment of the Skills Bootcamps Programme. The purpose of this evaluation is to provide a clear understanding of the quality, effectiveness, and overall impact of the programme across the region, capturing the perspectives of learners, employers, training providers, and other key stakeholders. The findings will support ECW in strengthening future delivery models and ensuring that the Skills Bootcamps continue to meet the needs of both learners and employers.

The evaluation will assess the effectiveness of programme delivery and the extent to which it has achieved its intended outcomes. It will examine the experiences of training providers, learners and employers as well as local partners.

The evaluation will review initial engagement and onboarding through to the completion of delivery, assessing how effectively ECW’s support mechanisms have functioned.

Submission

Bidders are required to submit tenders in an electronic format (i.e. MS Word/PDF) of no more than eight pages A4 detailing how you would approach this commission, including:

• Your understanding of the brief and your ability to meet the requirements
• Your experience of delivering work of similar focus, scale, and budget
• Names, job titles and short role descriptions of the people who would work on this commission, noting their technical capabilities
• A breakdown of costs, including details of your day rate and estimated days/ hours for the design, build, testing, and publication of the final product.

Closing Date

The closing date and time for the receipt of submissions and all requested documentation relating to this stage is 16:00 hours (4pm) on 19/12/2025. Late submissions will not be accepted.

Submissions will only be accepted if they are returned via email to tenders@cheshireandwarrington.com Bidders should not send their completed submissions to/copy in any other email address.

Tenderers are advised that it is compulsory to complete and return all the following documents in the format provided as per the instructions of this ITT. All questions must be answered, where a question does not apply, please state “Not applicable”.  Failure to complete the documents in full and/or provide all documentation will result in a non-compliant tender submission and will mean that your tender is not considered.

1. Tender Declaration (Appendix 1)
2. Supplier Information (Appendix 2)
3. Pricing Schedule (Appendix 3)

Tender Queries

If you have any specific questions concerning this document or the process for submission of your proposal, then please email through to tenders@cheshireandwarrington.com no later than 02/12/2025 at 16:00 hours (4pm). Only questions submitted to this email address will be answered.  Queries received after this date will not be accepted and will not be responded to.