01 April 2026
DfE publishes two tender notices for careers services
[Note: This information is being reported as news relevant to the career development profession. The CDI may or may not have an interest in either or both of these opportunities.]
The Department for Education has launched two opportunities for the delivery of services related to careers guidance in England.
CPD for careers advisers
The first is notice of a tender that will be live on 8th April and is for the anticipated CPD training for careers advisers in schools and colleges in England. This is the outcome of the initial policy to recruit 1,000 additional careers advisers. The tender will be to offer CPD training in six areas to at least 1,000 careers advisers. The contract is valued at up to £1.22 million, representing a new investment in careers training by the DfE.
The contract is expected to start from 1st September and run until 31st August 2029 – meaning investment in CPD of around £400,000 per year - with an optional one-year extension. It is intended to provide six modular CPD courses to train at least 1,000 careers advisers ‘prioritising level 6 and level 7 professionals’.
Read more information in the pre-tender notice including details on the need to be admitted to the Jaggaer system before the publication of the tender.
Service to support careers provision
The second is a market engagement exercise as the DfE is considering seeking tenders for the provision of careers support for young people. This is essentially a replacement for the current work of the Careers & Enterprise Company, with some changes to requirements. A market engagement event was hosted by the DfE for interested parties on March 31st, which was attended by at least 170 people. While not all of these will represent organisations likely to respond to the tender, it shows the level of interest in this area.
The aim of the market engagement is to gather feedback on the proposals before they are finalised into a tender, likely to be live in mid-August. The slides from the event will be available on the Jaggaer system.
The five objectives of the service are to;
These objectives remain within the context of the current standards and approaches of the DfE, including the Gatsby benchmarks as the underlying framework, the introduction of the work experience policy and the drive towards greater local government devolution. With the latter, the DfE see the service delivering at a national level and supporting at a local level.
The plans include the continuation and evolution of the Careers Leader training, as well as training for other school staff (though not the CPD for careers advisers which is separate). It also references supporting the embedding of careers in professional training for teachers. Resources will also remain a significant deliverable, along with partnerships, promoting quality and data, analysis and reporting.
In terms of supporting local hubs, the supplier will grant funding to achieve agreed outcomes (a new feature of the proposals), working closely with strategic and local authorities. Overall, they DfE are looking for a move towards ‘locally-owned hub delivery’.
The tender will be live from mid-August to mid-October 2026, will be awarded in early 2027 and is expected to go live in September 2027 as a three-year contract with an option to extend for a further two years. This is a significant shift from the current terms the CEC operates under, where their budget is agreed on an annual basis. This will allow the provider to plan longer-term, trickling down to the planning cycle hubs can work to as well.
It will be offered as a single contract, though consortia bids are welcome. The contract value is up to £36m per year. Estimates of the current CEC budget are around £30m so, if correct, this would represent an increase in budget from the Government. This may reflect the desire from DfE to maximise the amount of funding that is directed to careers hubs.
The next steps are for interested parties to register on the Jaggaer system, provide feedback in the post-event survey and attend a follow-up evet in early June. The DfE are keen to hear thoughts on the proposals and if there are areas they should focus on more.
Read more on the preliminary market engagement notice.
The Department for Education has launched two opportunities for the delivery of services related to careers guidance in England.
CPD for careers advisers
The first is notice of a tender that will be live on 8th April and is for the anticipated CPD training for careers advisers in schools and colleges in England. This is the outcome of the initial policy to recruit 1,000 additional careers advisers. The tender will be to offer CPD training in six areas to at least 1,000 careers advisers. The contract is valued at up to £1.22 million, representing a new investment in careers training by the DfE.
The contract is expected to start from 1st September and run until 31st August 2029 – meaning investment in CPD of around £400,000 per year - with an optional one-year extension. It is intended to provide six modular CPD courses to train at least 1,000 careers advisers ‘prioritising level 6 and level 7 professionals’.
Read more information in the pre-tender notice including details on the need to be admitted to the Jaggaer system before the publication of the tender.
Service to support careers provision
The second is a market engagement exercise as the DfE is considering seeking tenders for the provision of careers support for young people. This is essentially a replacement for the current work of the Careers & Enterprise Company, with some changes to requirements. A market engagement event was hosted by the DfE for interested parties on March 31st, which was attended by at least 170 people. While not all of these will represent organisations likely to respond to the tender, it shows the level of interest in this area.
The aim of the market engagement is to gather feedback on the proposals before they are finalised into a tender, likely to be live in mid-August. The slides from the event will be available on the Jaggaer system.
The five objectives of the service are to;
- Support schools and colleges to ‘deliver high quality careers programmes and drive continuous improvement’.
- Support careers hubs – with an emphasis on increasing grant funding to hubs and allowing greater local autonomy.
- Deliver enhanced support to young people with additional needs.
- Raise awareness of technical and vocational pathways.
- Increase employer engagement for the two weeks’ worth of work experience policy.
These objectives remain within the context of the current standards and approaches of the DfE, including the Gatsby benchmarks as the underlying framework, the introduction of the work experience policy and the drive towards greater local government devolution. With the latter, the DfE see the service delivering at a national level and supporting at a local level.
The plans include the continuation and evolution of the Careers Leader training, as well as training for other school staff (though not the CPD for careers advisers which is separate). It also references supporting the embedding of careers in professional training for teachers. Resources will also remain a significant deliverable, along with partnerships, promoting quality and data, analysis and reporting.
In terms of supporting local hubs, the supplier will grant funding to achieve agreed outcomes (a new feature of the proposals), working closely with strategic and local authorities. Overall, they DfE are looking for a move towards ‘locally-owned hub delivery’.
The tender will be live from mid-August to mid-October 2026, will be awarded in early 2027 and is expected to go live in September 2027 as a three-year contract with an option to extend for a further two years. This is a significant shift from the current terms the CEC operates under, where their budget is agreed on an annual basis. This will allow the provider to plan longer-term, trickling down to the planning cycle hubs can work to as well.
It will be offered as a single contract, though consortia bids are welcome. The contract value is up to £36m per year. Estimates of the current CEC budget are around £30m so, if correct, this would represent an increase in budget from the Government. This may reflect the desire from DfE to maximise the amount of funding that is directed to careers hubs.
The next steps are for interested parties to register on the Jaggaer system, provide feedback in the post-event survey and attend a follow-up evet in early June. The DfE are keen to hear thoughts on the proposals and if there are areas they should focus on more.
Read more on the preliminary market engagement notice.
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