The National Skills Academy for Environmental Technologies has produced two guides designed to help building services contractors compete more effectively. The complete support portfolio for completing a pre-qualification questionnaire (PQQ) and Tendering - an overview are available to purchase from the Skills Academy's website.
The 'Developing new business streams' PQQ pack acts as a real time portfolio for gathering, collating and presenting essential specified information in order to qualify to sell services to contractors. It familiarises small businesses with the questions that are found in a typical pre-qualification questionnaire, explains the type of information that is being requested and why it is required, and lists the specific detail that should be presented in a PQQ.

Focusing on formal tenders, the tendering guide gives essential information to help ensure small businesses have a competitive edge when they are tendering for specific work. It provides guidance on where to look for contracts, and what to include in a tender for the best chance of success.

Apart from assisting businesses in winning work, these guides are also useful for organisations looking for suppliers - the information included can be used to point service providers towards qualifying criteria.

'We have developed these products to help small businesses take advantage of low carbon business opportunities,' said Cathryn Hickey, executive director of the Skills Academy. 'Having the right qualifications and skills in renewables opens up a number of new business streams for companies; armed with the comprehensive information they need on pre-qualifying and tendering will allow them to go further with growing and developing their business.'

The tendering guide is available free when purchased with the PQQ support portfolio at £24.99, or is available separately at £5.99, both from www.nsaet.org.uk/products

The National Skills Academy for Environmental Technologies is a network of low carbon and renewables training. Consisting of 20 hubs, supported by a further 100 other spoke providers located nationwide, businesses can access the Skills Academy in a location close to their business.