Help with Tendering

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Supplier Development Programme (SDP)

Glasgow City Council is a proud partner of the Supplier Development Programme, a Scotland-wide initiative that assists Scottish-based small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), supported businesses and third sector organisations to improve their performance in winning public sector contracts. SDP supports businesses to compete for the Scottish public sector spend by offering FREE advice, support, training and events. It is your choice as to how you engage, whether through traditional classroom style face-to-face training, webinar training, or eLearning, or a mix - SDP covers all aspects of tendering. The programme grows year on year and had more the 17,000 registered businesses in Scotland in 2020/2021.

The Supplier Development Programme provides support to Glasgow businesses in four main ways:

• Raising awareness of the opportunities for SMEs and supported businesses from the public sector and their supply chains.
• Increasing business readiness to tender, with up-to-date information and resources for your business to use when bidding, such as considering Fair Work, the Climate Change emergency, Net Zero targets, community benefits and more;
• Assisting SMEs and third sector organisations in accessing tender opportunities through Public Contracts Scotland and other portals; and
• Helping businesses grow and support local community wealth building by improving efficiency, sustainability and market potential.

Benefits to Companies

Benefits to Scottish SMEs, third sector and Supported businesses registered with SDP include:

• Access to free core training delivered by SDP's expert trainers. The training covers a wide skill set, whether business have no experience of tendering, have some experience of tendering, or just want to improve their bids.
• Access to aligned training that focuses on specific contract opportunities, in partnership with public sector buyers.
• Free attendance at all Meet the Buyer events, providing direct access to buyers and decision makers from public organisations and private sector supply chains.
• Full access to information, resources, toolkits and policy templates on the SDP website.
• Access to a named contact at each of Scotland's 32 local authorities.
• Company listing on SDP's Supplier Register, to promote your business.
• Opting in to receive regular e-newsletters with the latest news and information about upcoming contracts and framework opportunities, as    well as events like Meet the Buyer.
• Access to a local business support network.

How to Register

To access the Supplier Development Programme for free, simply register your business details as a supplier now on www.sdpscotland.co.uk. A full list of free tender training to improve your bid writing is available on the SDP Events Calendar. 

You can also follow the Supplier Development Programme on social media on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube.

Email: info@sdpscotland.co.uk