Firm set to deliver courses to public sector worth £400m

A South Yorkshire firm is set to deliver £400m of training and development courses to public sector organisations.

Premier Partnership, of Doncaster, has been awarded a position on two major contracts to deliver managed training services and new apprenticeship standards to public sector organisations across the UK. Both are potentially four year long framework agreements.

The contracts are jointly commissioned with the Eastern Shires Purchasing Organisation (ESPO) Framework and the Crown Commercial Service’s (CCS) Apprenticeships Framework to deliver training and apprenticeships for six Midlands and East Anglian councils, the NHS, emergency services, housing associations, and central Government organisations including HS2, DWP, HMRC, Border Force, the Foreign Office and the Office of the Public Guardian.

Premier Partnership will deliver niche packages for the emergency services relating to counter terrorism, digital security, ballistic first aid and some unusual topics such as how to escape from submerged helicopters. Diplomats receive hazardous environment courses, with detectives schooled in forensics and the royalty protection group supported with leadership development.

It will also deliver apprenticeships in management and leadership, operational delivery, customer service and business administration across the public sector for customer-facing staff in organisations such as the DWP, HMRC, Border Force, the Foreign Office and the Office of the Public Guardian.

Premier Partnership managing director David Pearson said: “We are delighted to renew our highly productive relationship with ESPO, whose values we share and for whose clients we have already saved money, increased productivity and improved services. With public spending scrutiny only set to become keener in future years, we also look forward to the challenge of supporting CCS’s demanding continuous improvement programme.”

Oxford County Council learning and development manager, Sarah Sutton, added: “The training service is impressively complete – with sourcing of suppliers and negotiation, course scheduling, delivery, monitoring, administration, evaluation and reporting.”

 Premier Partnership is the biggest provider of apprentices to the public sector, delivering 14,000 training events annually. It has established itself as a leading South Yorkshire employer, boosting payroll in the last 12 months, from 20 to 130 staff. The company has successfully operated ESPO’s training offer for the past four years.