Employability Support Programme C008/2025/2026

Welsh Government is procuring Employability Support Programme services (“the Programme”) an initiative designed to support people in Wales to move closer to employment and into sustainable work. The Programme will deliver targeted, high-impact, person-centred employability support, ensuring that people regardless of their background can thrive in Wales’s evolving dynamic economy.
The Programme directly aligns with the Welsh Government’s Stronger, fairer, greener Wales: a plan for employability and skills (published March 2022), which sets out our responsibility to drive strategic change across the employability system by:
• Activating and supporting adults struggling to find work to enter and progress in employment.
• Improving the employment prospects for economically inactive people, particularly those most at risk of disadvantage in the labour market.
• Bringing together Welsh Government led employability programmes to deliver a new single operating model.
• Providing effective support at the end of EU funding.
The Programme will play a central role in delivering this strategic change and contributing to national milestones, including:
• Achieving at least 90% of 16–24-year-olds in education, employment, or training by 2050.
• Eradicating the employment rate gap between Wales and the UK, with a focus on increasing participation among under-represented groups.
To realise this strategic transformation and ensure progress towards these national milestones, a network of training providers will be required to deliver a specified employability support offer across the Regional Lots.
This will replace the present system for funding employability support programmes in Wales (existing contracted provision) which is due to end in March 2027.
The procurement will not make use of an electronic auction. Welsh Government do not propose to set the shortest minimum tendering period by reference to section 54(4) of the Procurement Act 2023.
Initial and Additional Cohorts:
To maximise the accessibility, effectiveness and impact, services delivered under the Contract will be targeted towards an Initial Cohort. Services may at the Welsh Government’s discretion subject to funding availability, service need and strategic priorities, be extended to one or both Additional Cohorts during the Contract Duration by written notice:
Initial Cohort
• Cohort 1: Those aged from 16 years old, up to and including 24-year-olds, who are not in education, employment or training (NEET).
Additional Cohorts
• Cohort 2: Aged 25+ and short term unemployed from 1 day to 6 months unemployed (subject to Cohort 2 being activated, and additional eligibility criteria may apply if activated).
• Cohort 3: Aged 25+ and long term unemployed over 6 months to 24 months unemployed (subject to Cohort 3 being activated, and additional eligibility criteria may apply if activated).
Services for the Additional Cohorts will be materially similar in design and delivery method to those delivered for the Initial Cohort, with the frequency and intensity of interventions tailored to meet the specific needs of each group. Bidder(s) must not submit tenders on the assumption that any Additional Cohorts and / or Extension Period(s) will be activated during the Contract Duration.
For indicative purposes only, Welsh Government currently anticipates that for the whole Programme approximately 8,000 individuals per year may be eligible for and may access services under Cohort 1. This estimate is provided solely to support bidder understanding of the potential scale of delivery. It is not a guarantee of participant numbers, demand levels or referral volumes. Actual numbers may be higher or lower and will depend on wider labour market conditions, referral pathways and funding availability. No minimum or maximum participant volumes are guaranteed under this Contract.
The tender is split into 4 Lots by geographical locations, this procurement description applies to each Lot.
This tender notice is for the award of a public contract through an open procedure in accordance with section 20(1) and (2)(a) of the Procurement Act 2023; Section 9 Light touch applies to this contract.
Welsh Government does not consider there to be any known risks that could jeopardise the satisfactory performance of the Contract, which have not already been addressed in the Tender Documents.

North Wales- Conwy, Denbighshire, Flintshire, Gwynedd, Isle of Anglesey, Wrexham- approx. 21% of the contract. The intention is to appoint a maximum of 3 suppliers to the lot.
The Services will be delivered within each Regional Lot by the appointed contractors. Delivery may take place in person and online/virtually adapting to individual participant needs. The Client will manage the allocation of displaced participants as provided in the Instructions to Bidders at paragraph 10 (Allocation Methodology). Future referrals will be closely monitored by the Client to ensure they remain broadly proportionate to the R