2023/007 Establishment of a single-party framework for the Design and Delivery of Training Supports for Enterprise Ireland’s Spotlight on Skills (SOS) Programme for Client Companies.

Short description

Enterprise Ireland’s 2022-2024 Strategy sets out our mission to Accelerate the development of world-class Irish companies to achieve leading positions in global markets. In the 2022 Enterprise Ireland Annual Business Review approx. 1,900 identified skills and labour sourcing and retention as a critical issue for their business. In Ambition 2 of Enterprise Ireland’s strategy 2022-2024, Leading in a Changing World, it highlights the need to facilitate increased engagement by enterprise and key stakeholders on addressing critical skills needs. Based on the success/impact of the Spotlight on Skills programmes and the continued importance of taking a strategic approach to identifying and planning for client’s future skills needs, Enterprise Ireland is looking to continue the programme and expand support through the establishment of a new framework. The primary focus of the programme will be to empower the SME client base to examine and articulate their skills requirements to grow and significantly scale their business in global markets supporting them to develop a strategic workforce skills plan. The programme takes senior management along a comprehensive process in which they define company aspirations and company goals, determine key success factors, clarify strategic priorities, identify strategic capabilities, diagnose the skills gaps to build organisational capabilities and create a skills plan to address skills gaps, and support the growth plan of the company. Full list of requirements is contained in the tender documents. Responses must be uploaded in a ZIP FILE format.

Main features of the procedure

Those invited to tender, are hereby issued with a minimum based specification, award criteria and pricing documents and invited to submit tenders.
The Contracting Authority will evaluate those tenders against the award criteria and reserves the right to:
(a) Move straight to a contract award decision, without negotiation.
(b) To apply the successive reduction rule to reduce the number of firms invited to the negotiation phase; or
(c) To invite all firms to negotiation meetings.

Additional information

(1) Interested parties must associate their organisation with this competition on the eTenders web site (www.etenders.gov.ie) in order to be included on the mailing list for clarifications and to upload tender responses. To do this you must do the following: Log-in to the eTenders portal; Locate the competition using the Advanced Search by searching under the Contracting Authority or Resource ID. Click on the hyperlink for the competition which will bring you to the CfT Workspace. In the Show CfT Menu for the competition click on the “Expression of Interest in the drop-down menu. Complete the Association with the CfT tab. This will then provide you with a link to Tender under the Show CfT Menu where you can prepare your submission.
(2) When finalising your tender submission please upload your final response as a ZIP file as individual documents may lose their titles if uploaded individually. Also ensure that you receive a message under the status header called Submitted, as the percentage tab does not necessarily imply you have successfully submitted your response.
(3) There is a maximum upload limit of 250MB per file and 500MB per tender submission.
(4) Suppliers should note the following when making their submission suppliers must ensure that they give themselves sufficient time to upload & submit all required documentation before the submission deadline. Suppliers should consider the fact that upload speeds vary and that the new eTenders system operates in a different manner to the previous platform operated by EU-Supply. The submit button will be disable automatically upon the expiration of the response deadline.
(5) If you experience difficulty when uploading documents, please contact the eTenders Support Desk for technical assistance. Email irish-eproc-helpdesk@eurodym.com or Telephone: +353(0)818 001459 (09:00 – 17:00 hours).
(6) Tenders submitted by any other means (including but not limited to email, post, messaging system on etenders or hand delivery) will not be accepted.
(7) All information relating to attachments, including clarifications and changes, will be published on the Irish Government Procurement Opportunities Portal (www.etenders.gov.ie) only. Registration is free of charge. The contracting authority will not accept responsibility for information relayed (or not relayed) via third parties.
(8) All queries regarding this tender requirement or process must be submitted through the Irish Government Procurement Opportunities Portal www.etenders.gov.ie as a specific question. Responses will be circulated to those tenderers that have registered an interest in this notice on www.etenders.gov.ie. The details of the person making a query will not be disclosed when circulating the response
(9) The contracting authority will not be responsible for any costs, charges or expenses incurred by candidates or tenderers. Contract award will be subject to the approval of the competent authorities.
(10) Without prejudice to the principle of equal treatment, the contracting authority is not obliged to engage in a clarification process in respect of the procurement documents with missing or incomplete information. Therefore, respondents are advised to ensure that they return completed documentation in order to avoid the risk of elimination from the competition.
(11) Where applicable, please note in relation to all documents, that where reference is made to a particular standard, make, source, process, trademark, type, or patent, that this is not to be regarded as a de facto requirement. In all such cases it should be understood that such indications are to be treated strictly and solely for reference purposes only, to which the words "or equivalent" will always be appended.
(12) At its absolute discretion, the contracting authority may elect to terminate this procurement process, the framework agreement or any contract awarded under the framework agreement at any time.