Specification
Sustainable requirements should be incorporated into the specification. They must be relevant and proportionate to the procurement, and not to the general capacities or qualities of the operator. Buyers can maximise opportunities and outcomes by considering employment, skills and training and its relevance to the procurement in question early so that appropriate requirements can be incorporated into the specification.
Specifications may require that the successful contractor adhere to relevant minimum training and/or qualification standards through the lifetime of the contract, and that staff involved in contract delivery will hold relevant training certificates appropriate to their role.
It is important to be as specific as possible when setting out what benefits you expect to achieve, and requirements you intend to include in the contract. For example, specify jobs and work experience in terms of full-time equivalent or training hours – such as work experience placements (number of people and training hours), curriculum support activities (careers events – number of events and attendees), qualifying the workforce (number of vocational qualification /certification achieved (S/NVQs)), Industry certification, Green Skills training, apprentice starts, existing apprentices, and apprentice completions, etc. This limits uncertainty for suppliers as generic requirements make it difficult for bidders to formulate strong responses and delivery plans.
For example, the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) have developed a series of matrices relating to different types and values of construction contracts that provide a basis for specifying a range of relevant and proportionate training and recruitment requirements. Public bodies can liaise with CITB to set relevant targets appropriate to their construction contract.
Any relevant employment, skills and training requirements included in the specification should be incorporated into the final contract terms, service levels and key performance indicators. This sets clear measurable performance expectations for contractors, enabling them to manage any subcontractors responsible for delivering some of the community benefit commitments.
The Use of Labels or Standards
A buyer may ask for what they are buying to have been given an independently verifiable label or operate to a stated standard which certifies that it meets specific social or other criteria.
Labels are a specific term and how they should be used is set out in Regulation 44 of the Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2015.
It is important to avoid being prescriptive with standards as these can be costly to achieve and maintain and may act as a barrier to participation in public contracts. For detailed information on the use of labels refer to the Procurement Journey.
The following standards and labels include a focus on employment, skills and training. It is important to be clear that the underlying criteria of these or others are relevant for the planned procurement:
Investors in People - Several accreditation programs including ‘We invest in people’, ‘We invest in wellbeing’ and ‘We invest in apprentices’.
ISO 10015:2019 - Guidelines for competence management and people development
Transferrable Skills
To gain the maximum impact from use of community benefit requirements, it is important to seek recognised qualifications such as Scottish Vocational Qualifications (SVQ) or equivalent. SVQs are work-based qualifications that guarantee someone can do their job well and to the national standards for their sector. SVQ subjects that may be relevant to the public sector might include:
Skills for Work - areas such as Building Services Engineering, Automotive Skills
See Annex A for examples.
Knowledge Checklist
- Include relevant employment skills and training requirements
- Use fair and proportionate criteria