---
title: "Careers Support for Young People"
ocid: "ocds-h6vhtk-066c17"
canonical_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/?ocid=ocds-h6vhtk-066c17"
markdown_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-h6vhtk-066c17.md"
json_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-h6vhtk-066c17.json"
source: "Find A Tender Service"
current_stage: "Planning"
buyer: "DEPARTMENT FOR EDUCATION"
published: "2026-05-20"
---

# Careers Support for Young People

Buyer: DEPARTMENT FOR EDUCATION  
Current stage: Planning  
OCID: ocds-h6vhtk-066c17

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## Summary

The Department for Education in the United Kingdom is in the planning stage of a procurement process titled "Careers Support for Young People" in the education and training services industry. The procurement aims to improve careers education, advice, and guidance for young people across England through enhanced programmes in schools and colleges. With an estimated funding range of £90 million to £180 million for a contract extending from 2027 to 2030, this opportunity is targeting service providers experienced in career guidance services. An open procurement method with a competitive flexible procedure has been adopted, and an upcoming market engagement event is scheduled for 4th June 2026 via MS Teams. Interested providers must keep an eye out for further communications and notices expected around mid-August 2026.

This tender represents a promising opportunity for organisations experienced in educational service delivery, particularly within career guidance and training sectors. Small and medium enterprises, as well as voluntary, community, and social enterprises, are encouraged to participate, given the procurement's inclusivity for such entities. This is an excellent opportunity to collaborate with strategic local authorities and educational partners in establishing a wide-reaching careers hub network across England. Potential suppliers could capitalise on this contract to expand their footprints in the public sector, enhance their service portfolios, and play a pivotal role in shaping future educational support systems for young people in the UK.

## Notice

The purpose of this preliminary market engagement notice is to inform the market of a forthcoming supplier engagement event regarding future support for schools and colleges to deliver careers education, information, advice and guidance for young people in England. The Department for Education (DfE) will be undertaking an online market engagement event via MS Teams at 13:30 on 4 June 2026 for interested parties. The event is anticipated to last for a duration of 120 minutes. The slide deck will be published on Jaggaer (ssq_747) following the event. If you wish to attend the market engagement event, please use the link below: https://teams.microsoft.com/meet/37330634720732?p=0wulXBBrLzFePLzSOX We last carried out supplier engagement regarding future support for schools and colleges to deliver careers education, information, advice and guidance on 31 March 2026. In this event we shared our broad plans for how we want to continue to support schools and colleges to improve careers guidance from the 2027/28 academic year and to support partnership working with strategic and local authorities through careers hubs. We used a supplier survey to test bidder appetite and delivery viability with potential suppliers. The purpose of the follow up supplier engagement webinar on 4 June is to: * Respond to insights and questions gathered in the survey we issued after the supplier engagement event on 31 March, including providing further detail on proposed requirements. * Outline and test a draft service specification and outline Key Performance Indicators and seek supplier views to inform these. This Notice is not a binding statement of intent or a call for competition. It does not signify the commencement of any competitive process and does not constitute any commitment by the DfE. If DfE decides to commence any competitive process(es) as contemplated by this notice, a separate notice(s) will be published at the relevant time. The information contained in this notice, including information relating to the nature and scope of the authority's requirements, and the service classification of this requirement from the list of CPV codes, is only indicative of the authority's current thinking, and is neither exhaustive nor binding and the DfE reserves the right at its absolute discretion to amend this notice at the time of issue or at any other time. The DfE will not be liable for any bid cost, expenditure, work or effort incurred by a provider in acting on the basis of this notice. Any funding estimates referenced are indicative only and subject to change. The Department makes no commitment at this stage to the final scope or funding envelope of any future contractual activity. The current funding estimates are between PS90m and PS180m for a 3-5 year contract, plus a mobilisation period of up to 6 months if required.

### Lot Information

Lot 1

Renewal: A mobilisation period of up to six months may be required, starting from March 2027. Following mobilisation, the successful bidder will deliver the contract for an initial three-year term, commencing September 2027, with an option to extend for up to a further two years at the Department for Education's sole discretion. All dates are indicative.

### Planning Information

Attend online market engagement event – 31st March 2026 
https://teams.microsoft.com/meet/33123569370825?p=7rcZJPhqj0MfP4f5Sn 
(Meeting ID: 331 235 693 708 25
Passcode: Gr6Pm9RF)
Please direct all correspondence via Jaggaer (ssq_747), any correspondence recieved via email will be redirected to Jaggaer.
Following the market engagement event on 31st March, DfE launched a survey to test initial thinking around the future offer.
The link to the survey is below, and we'd really appreciate responses by 15th April - https://forms.cloud.microsoft/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=yXfS-grGoU2187O4s0qC-fpf4k9ksBlHssXHrcIcta1UNU8wSDlJUEJWNFVZUTFZU0JRQzNCNEpUTi4u

## Key Details

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Publication source | Find A Tender Service |
| Latest notice | https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/046368-2026 |
| Notice type | UK3 - Planned Procurement Notice |
| Procurement type | Standard |
| Procurement category | Services |
| Procurement method | Open |
| Procurement method details | Competitive flexible procedure |
| Tender suitability | SME, VCSE |
| Awardee scale | Not specified |
| All stages | Planning |

## Dates

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Publication date | 20 May 2026 |
| Submission deadline | 14 Oct 2026 |
| Future notice date | 19 Aug 2026 |
| Award date | Not specified |
| Contract period | 1 Mar 2027 - 31 Aug 2030 |
| Recurrence | Not specified |

## Values

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Tender value | £180,000,000 |
| Lots value | £180,000,000 |
| Awards value | Not specified |
| Contracts value | Not specified |

## Status

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Tender status | Planned |
| Lots status | Planned |
| Awards status | Not specified |
| Contracts status | Not specified |

## Buyer

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Main buyer | DEPARTMENT FOR EDUCATION |
| Locality | LONDON |
| Post town | South West London |
| Postcode | SW1P 3BT |
| Country | England |
| ITL 1 | TLI London |
| ITL 2 | TLI3 Inner London - West |
| ITL 3 | TLI35 Westminster and City of London |
| Local authority | Westminster |
| Electoral ward | St James's |
| Westminster constituency | Cities of London and Westminster |
| Delivery location | Not specified |

## CPV Codes

### Divisions

- 79 - Business services: law, marketing, consulting, recruitment, printing and security
- 80 - Education and training services

### Codes

- 79634000 - Career guidance services
- 80000000 - Education and training services

## Release History

- 20 May 2026 at 12:27 - Planning - UK3 - Planned Procurement Notice - https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/046368-2026
- 20 May 2026 at 12:05 - Planning - UK1 - Pipeline Notice - https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/046353-2026
- 2 Apr 2026 at 09:05 - PlanningUpdate - UK2 - Preliminary Market Engagement Notice - https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/030697-2026
- 17 Mar 2026 at 12:14 - Planning - UK2 - Preliminary Market Engagement Notice - https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/023991-2026

## Documents

- https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/046368-2026
  20th May 2026 - Planned procurement notice on Find a Tender
- https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/046353-2026
  20th May 2026 - Pipeline notice on Find a Tender
- https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/030697-2026
  2nd April 2026 - Preliminary market engagement notice on Find a Tender
- https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/023991-2026
  17th March 2026 - Preliminary market engagement notice on Find a Tender

## Notice URLs

- https://education.app.jaggaer.com/web/login.html
- https://forms.cloud.microsoft/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=yXfS-grGoU2187O4s0qC-fpf4k9ksBlHssXHrcIcta1UNU8wSDlJUEJWNFVZUTFZU0JRQzNCNEpUTi4u
- https://teams.microsoft.com/meet/33123569370825?p=7rcZJPhqj0MfP4f5Sn
- https://teams.microsoft.com/meet/37330634720732?p=0wulXBBrLzFePLzSOX
- https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2023/54/contents

## Provenance

This Markdown file is an alternate public rendering of the D3 Tenders contract record. The canonical page is https://d3tenders.com/contract/?ocid=ocds-h6vhtk-066c17. The underlying structured data is available as OCDS JSON at https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-h6vhtk-066c17.json.