Inspire Education Group (IEG) has proudly delivered education and training for over six decades. Throughout this period, we’ve cultivated valuable relationships with numerous businesses, supporting our strategic objective to procure high-value goods, works, and services that directly benefit our students. Notably, many of our local suppliers and their employees are former College students, having acquired essential skills here to operate thriving enterprises.
Supplier Opportunities
Our Procurement Approach
IEG procures a diverse range of works, goods and services, encompassing everything from essential learning materials for our extensive course offerings to the engagement of contractors for the ongoing maintenance and enhancement of our premises.
We acknowledge the invaluable contribution of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) and are committed to actively encouraging their participation in our procurement activities.
Our procurement methodology is primarily dictated by the projected value of each contract. This ensures rigorous adherence to both UK Procurement Regulations and our established internal procurement and financial policies and procedures.
Getting in Touch
While IEG does not accept speculative expressions of interest prior to the advertisement of tenders, we welcome introductory emails for our records. Prospective suppliers should direct their initial correspondence to the Procurement Department, at procurement@ieg.ac.uk detailing the works, goods or services your organisation can provide.
For information regarding subcontracted training provision, please refer to the dedicated further information section below.
Further Information
As a Further Education (FE) College, we are classified as a Sub-Central Contracting Authority and are required to comply with UK Public Procurement Law (Procurement Act 2023).
The purpose of this legislation is to ensure open, fair, and transparent competition for all public expenditure.
Where it is anticipated that a procurement’s estimated value (over the full life of the contract, including VAT and extensions) will reach the statutory threshold, we will comply with the law by either:
- Purchasing via a pre-tendered framework agreement (such as those provided by the Crescent Purchasing Consortium (CPC), Crown Commercial Service (CCS), ESPO and Pagabo etc.
- Advertising our requirement on the UK e-notification service, Find a Tender (FaT). This replaces the former requirement to advertise in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU).
In the UK, thresholds for public contracts, set by the Procurement Act 2023, are subject to change every two years and were updated for 01st January 2026 to 31st December 2027.
| Type of Contract | FE College Threshold (Including VAT) |
| Goods and Service | £207,720 |
| Works | £5,193,000 |
| Light Touch | £663,540 |
Inspire Education Group may choose to purchase through a Central Purchasing Body (or Public Buying Organisation), a highly efficient and legally compliant method of procurement.
We currently work with the following purchasing consortia:
- Crescent Purchasing Consortium (CPC):
- CPC maintains a membership of over 10,644 institutions throughout the U.K. and has 83 active frameworks
- CPC provide purchasing frameworks, dynamic purchasing system (DPS) and procurement consultancy service for schools, academies, colleges, universities and other educational organisations.
- CPC works in collaboration with the Department for Education and United Kingdom University Purchasing Consortia (UKUPC).
- To become a supplier please visit https://www.thecpc.ac.uk/becoming-a-supplier
- For more information about CPC please visit https://www.thecpc.ac.uk/
Other consortia used are:
- East Shires Purchasing Organisation (ESPO): https://www.espo.org/
- Crown Commercial Service (CCS): https://www.crowncommercial.gov.uk/
- Pagabo: https://pagabo.co.uk/
- Southern Universities Purchasing Consortium (SUPC): https://www.supc.ac.uk/
Depending on the type of requirement and value of the contract we may choose to investigate the market and invite quotes or tender bids or advertise the contract, suitable opportunities will be advertised on Multiquote, an electronic tendering platform which can be viewed at http://www.multiquote.com/, suppliers can register and look for opportunities free of charge. For contract values of £25,000 or above, opportunities will also be advertised in Contracts Finder www.gov.uk/contracts-finder
From time to time, depending on funding allocations the College may seek to appoint experienced providers who can provide a high quality training experience to deliver qualifications and/or programmes eligible for funding on its behalf. Opportunities will be advertised as and when they become available.
The area shaded in green represents a 70 mile radius to Peterborough and will be the focus of our provision. The geographical area is indicated below:
Supplier Opportunities
Prospective suppliers should direct their initial correspondence to the Procurement Department, at procurement@ieg.ac.uk
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