Clarifications

232. Re: Attach 7, Clause 16. Can the Authority please clarify whether the Security Policy and Standards are applicable as a default? If not, when would you expect them to become applicable?

231. Re: Attachment 7, Clause 7.3. Can the Authority please clarify what Clause part (d) references to?

230. Attachment 2. Can the Authority please clarify the use of this Attachment as the bulk of Apprenticeship Funds are paid via the ESFA Digital Account and not invoiced - Is this to present funds that are invoiced outside of the Digital Account?

229. Hello, in regard to question number 5, we are a Further Education Technical College and as an exempt charity do not have a company number. The field requires a numerical response, can you please advise how to proceed?

227. How can my organisation join this particular apprenticeship training dynamic marketplace, please? We are crown commercial and supplier registration service registered - I have also ticked the link box to say that we wish to join this markeplace DPS, but all links onscreens and in the bid pack are just sending me round in circles, not actually taking me to a registration point to complete the necessary documents for this opportunity (RM6102). Crown Commercial is not showing me this RM6102 opportunity, either as a PQQ or ITT (or as open to all suppliers or open just to my organisation). Help appreciated please.

226. Hello, Please can I ask you to confirm that Selection Questionnaire - 1645704938 is the correct SQ for us to complete to join the RM6102 Apprenticeships Training Dynamic Marketplace. We accessed this through the DPS market place. Also, we noticed that some of the questions listed in Section 9 of the RM6102 Dynamic Marketplace Needs that are deemed 'not applicable questions', do not match the headings in the SQ. Please can you confirm that the below are still not to be answered: • Part 2: (Contract Example 2) - Q134 • Part 2: (Contract Example 3) - Q135 • Part 2: (Contract Example) - Q137 • Part 2: Product Liability Insurance - Q143 • Part 3: (Supply Chain Management) - Q147 - Q149 • Part 3: (Past Performance) Q150 - Q154 • Part 3: (DOH Questions) - Q157 - Q161 Thank you

225. Hello, please can you add Level 7 HR to the programme selections? Thank you

224. In regards to question 21 in RM6219 'The approximate % of contractual obligations assigned to the sub-contractor', will you please be able to clarify what this question mean? We are not very clear on what % it is indicating to. We have a very large pool of coaches who are technically sub-contractors. When we work with a client, the % will vary massively from coach to coach - we have some coaches who deliver for us on a regular basis whereas others only deliver a handful of times a year.

223. In regards to question 133 in RM6219 'Are you able to provide details of your first example contract? Can we provide this for 2nd and 3rd contract?: (Yes/No) Please provide details'. Confirmed with our Legal Department, we cannot share actual client data with anyone as we cannot share the personal details of client contacts (not authorized the disclosure of commercially sensitive information; name of customer, start and end date and estimated contract value, etc). But on Question 137 in RM6219, 'If you cannot provide at least one example customer contract (Question 133), in no more than 500 words please provide an explanation for this e.g. your organisation is a new start-up or you have provided services in the past but not under a contract'. Is none of those situations, the reason is explained above (not authorized the disclosure of commercially sensitive information), but we can relate to RM6145 where you already have a contract with us on this), would you need also our MSA template?

222. In regards to question 129 in RM6219, 'Do you meet the minimum level of economic and financial standing and/or minimum financial threshold specified within the evaluation criteria for this procurement?(Yes / No)'. We don't know what the evaluation criteria are. Our Finance team believes we are fine but we can't say yes without knowing the exact evaluation criteria please.

221. In regards to question 22 to 29 in RM6219, I was hoping you could provide some clarity.We will be able to provide you with the information for our third party suppliers, as there is a handful of companies that we work with. However in regards to our setup for delivering sessions, we have a very large pool of coaches who are technically sub-contractors. When we work with a client we will scope who is the best coach from our pool to use (based on criteria such as the audience, learning needed and industry). Therefore, would it be sufficient for us to submit 5 coaches' details (VAT, DUNS and Company Registration Number ), and then if we are selected for work, we can provide the specific coach details for the project.

220. Hi There is a request for us to answer a question for Cyber Requirements 20.2. Please confirm all subcontractors detailed in your SQ submission have Cyber Essentials Plus certificate in place. Yes No If we dont have any sub contractors what do we answer? Thnaks Simon

219. Hi. I have three questions. Firstly, do we need to complete Q133? Your response to previous clarification questions indicates that we do not; however it is not shown in the list of questions not required for completion in Section 9 of the READFIRST document. Secondly, how do we confirm which standards we wish to deliver. In the READFIRST document it states that it is part of the SQ submission but the only document I can see which lists the standards is attachment 1a - does this need to be complete at the outset and uploaded somewhere? Finally, I'm not sure how to interpret the first two questions on the SQ regarding providing a name and description for the product questionnaire. Can you elaborate? Thank you

218. Hello, We would like to change the programmes we are adding to the DPS yet have already completed the general prospectus. Please can you advise how we amend our selection? Thank you,

217. Hello, Please can you confirm if we are able to offer discounts based on number of learners enrolled in one year, or if the discounts are offered based on the contract length? Thank you Hannah

215. Hello Please can we specify that discounts offered must be for apprenticeships enrolled within one year of contract award?

214. Please can you clarify if we are able to add a time limit to the discounts offered? Ie a 5% discount for 50 learners, providing that the learners are enrolled within 1 year of award? Thank you

213. Hello, Please can you advise? Would we need to complete two separate applications to join the DPS if we are bidding as two organisations under the same umbrella organisation (albeit the umbrella organisation does not deliver apprenticeships)? Thank you,

212. Please can you clarify the term 'blended' when referring to the following question in the apprenticeship prospectus? Please confirm how you will deliver 20% off the job training requirement, between one or more of the options below (your accumulative total across your selected option(s) should equate to 20%). Online Classroom based Workshop Blended Thank you, Hannah

211. Can you provide context to the flexibility within to a standard competition process via the framework for a supplier to expand their offering to meet the requirement of the contracting authority? In particular: 1) The contracting authority wants to procure 3 apprenticeship standards, and selects these on the filter. The supplier has 1 standard on the framework, but can also (although not on the framework) deliver the other two standards. Would they be visible to the contracting authority, and could the supplier submit a proposal to deliver all 3? 2) If a supplier is able to offer all of the "training delivery mode" options, do they have to put all four on the framework separately? Or, if the Contracting Authority is filtering on Apprenticeship standard would the supplier be able to just be on the framework with one option, but at competition be able to offer an alternative "training delivery mode" to the one they have on the framework? And lastly 3) If the Contracting Authority has a particular requirement that meant the supplier would want to use a different sub-contractor, or use a sub-contractor where originally self-delivery was expected, does this flexibility exist?