This guide is for training and L&D providers who already deliver for private clients and want to know how to become a training provider that councils, NHS trusts and other public bodies buy from. Most of the answer is not about your courses. It is about getting onto the right lists and having the paperwork buyers check.
If you have searched for how to become a training provider, you will have found plenty about starting a training business. This guide picks up where that ends: you are already a private training provider, and you want public sector work. There are four steps. Get on the list, close the gaps, win your first contract, then build from there.
First, what "approved" and "accredited" actually mean
People often ask how to get onto the approved training provider list. Outside apprenticeships, there isn't one. Three different things get called "approved" or "accredited", and buyers treat them differently.
- Awarding body recognition. Organisations such as ILM and CMI approve centres to deliver and assess their qualifications. Both also offer lighter routes: ILM Assured recognises in-house programmes, and CMI offers recognition of bespoke training as well as approved and registered centre status. Ofqual's public register shows which qualifications and awarding organisations are regulated.
- CPD accreditation. An independent CPD body confirms that a course meets its standard. Useful evidence in a bid, but it does not make a course a regulated qualification.
- Framework or DPS admission. A buyer, or a public buying organisation, admits you to its list after checking your application. This is the "approval" that leads to public sector invitations, and each framework runs its own.
For apprenticeships there is a single gate: the Apprenticeship Provider and Assessment Register. (See APAR, UKPRN and apprenticeship DPSs.)
So how to become an accredited training provider depends on what the buyer asks for. Some framework lots ask for regulated qualifications or a named accreditation. Under the Procurement Act 2023, a buyer cannot require a particular qualification without allowing equivalents.
Step 1: get on the list
Councils, NHS trusts and public buying organisations place much of their training through frameworks and dynamic purchasing systems (DPSs). Call-off contracts under a framework are not advertised with a tender notice, so the suppliers on the list are the ones invited to compete. (See training tenders in the UK.)
Start with a route you can actually get onto. A DPS accepts new applications throughout its term, which helps. The Hull learning and training DPS is the lightest entry route we know of for a newer provider. The EEAST training framework is an NHS route that suits newer providers too. The YPO training framework suits providers with some public sector or professional-body history. The full set is on our frameworks page.
Before you apply, register your organisation on the Central Digital Platform. Buyers running procurements under the Procurement Act 2023 will ask for it.
Step 2: close the gaps
Framework applications ask for the same evidence each time. Fix the gaps before you apply.
- Insurance. Employers' liability is a legal requirement once you employ staff. Public liability and professional indemnity are what buyers usually ask for on top. Under the Procurement Act 2023, a buyer cannot insist that contract insurance is in place before award; you can show you will get it.
- Data protection. ICO registration, and a data protection policy that covers learner records.
- Cyber Essentials, where the work involves personal data. (See Cyber Essentials for training providers.)
- Safeguarding and DBS. A safeguarding policy, a named lead, and the right level of DBS check for trainers working with children or vulnerable adults.
- Financial standing. Recent accounts. Buyers cannot demand audited accounts from a business the Companies Act does not require to have them audited.
- References and case studies. Two or three named examples of comparable delivery, with clients willing to confirm them.
The full list, with what each item means, is in our insurance, ICO and DBS checklist. For how selection questions are set out, see the PQQ and selection questionnaire.
Step 3: win your first contract
Once you are on a list, invitations usually arrive as further competitions. Each one is a short tender. Answer the buyer's actual question, use evidence from similar work, and price the delivery you described. (See how to write a tender response and how bids are scored.)
Smaller open opportunities are worth watching too. When they advertise publicly, central government bodies, which here include NHS trusts, must publish contracts worth £12,000 including VAT or more; for other public bodies the figure is £30,000.
Step 4: build from there
Your first public sector contract is your best evidence for the next. Collect feedback and outcome data as you deliver, get permission to name the buyer, and keep case studies, CVs and policies ready to reuse. Then add a second framework.
Frequently asked questions
How do I become a training provider for the public sector?
Get admitted to the frameworks and dynamic purchasing systems that public buyers use for training, make sure your insurance, data protection, safeguarding and financial evidence are in order, then compete for the call-off contracts those lists bring.
Is there an approved training provider list for the public sector?
Not a single one. Each framework or DPS keeps its own list of admitted suppliers. The exception is apprenticeships, where providers must be on the Apprenticeship Provider and Assessment Register to receive government funding.
How do I become an accredited training provider?
It depends what you mean by accredited. To deliver regulated qualifications you become an approved centre of an awarding body such as ILM or CMI. CPD accreditation comes from an independent CPD body. Neither is required for every public contract; check what each framework lot asks for.
Do I need audited accounts to apply?
Not unless the law already requires your accounts to be audited. Under the Procurement Act 2023, buyers cannot demand audited accounts from a supplier the Companies Act does not require to have them, and must accept other evidence of financial standing instead.
Sources
- GOV.UK — Apply to the APAR as an apprenticeship training provider
- GOV.UK — Find a regulated qualification (Ofqual)
- ILM — Working with training providers and centres and ILM Assured
- CMI — Become a centre
- GOV.UK — Guidance: conditions of participation (Procurement Act 2023)
- GOV.UK — Guidance: frameworks (Procurement Act 2023)
- GOV.UK — Guidance: below-threshold contracts
- GOV.UK — Employers' liability insurance