The Employment Related Services Association (ERSA) is hosting a series of Prime Pitch “speed dating” events to assist providers interested in subcontracting opportunities within DWP’s Work Programme to meet up with prime bidders. The Prime Pitch events are designed to bring together a number of prime bidders in the same venues at the same time, and are particularly supportive of smaller, specialist and voluntary sector providers in enabling them to pitch their services to multiple bidders in a single day.
The Prime Pitch events are taking place on the following dates:
London – Tuesday 12th October
Church House, Dean’s Yard, Westminster, London SW1P 3NZ
Birmingham – Thursday 14th October
National Motorcycle Museum, Coventry Road, Bickenhill, B92 0EJ
Leeds – Friday 15th October
The Loft, Cross York Street, Leeds, LS2 7EE
ERSA are aiming to attract as many prime bidders as possible to host a speed dating table at each event, to talk to subcontractor candidates and disseminate their literature. A4e, Remploy, and FourstaR Employment & Skills are amongst the prime bidders who have already confirmed interest in hosting a table. Further prime bidder hosts will be announced in due course.
Alongside ERSA’s membership, the Association of Learning Providers (ALP) and the Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations (ACEVO) have also confirmed their support in promoting the events to their membership.
The events will be free for subcontractor representatives to attend (limited to two representatives per provider per event), although pre-registration is required. Each event will involve a separate morning and afternoon session (09.30am to 12.30pm and 13.30pm to 16.30pm). Participants will be regularly rotated between the tables, to ensure that subcontractor candidates get the chance to meet all of the prime bidders that they wish to see.
The Prime Pitch events are being organised on behalf of ERSA by Carley Consult. To register to attend any of the Prime Pitch events, please e-mail Jane Shelley (jshelley@carleyconsult.co.uk), confirming the event(s) that you wish to attend, the names of your representatives, and whether you would prefer to attend the morning or the afternoon session. If you are a prime bidder and would like to receive an order form to host a table at any of the events, please also contact Jane at the same address.
