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SDP Scotland Welcomes First Trade Association Member: SELECT

When the Supplier Development Programme (SDP) submitted a response to the Scottish Parliament’s Economy, Energy, Jobs and Fair Work Committee’s Consultation on “Construction and Scotland’s Economy,” in January 2019, it was not a foreseeable outcome that a new member would be welcomed to the Programme just a few months later. However, the Supplier Development Programme has done just that, when SELECT’s Managing Director, Alan Wilson, signed a Partnership Agreement on Monday, 13 May 2019.

SELECT is the trade association for the electrical contracting industry in Scotland. SELECT has over 1,200 member companies that employ over 15,000 people. Through this new partnership, SELECT’s member companies will be able to join the more than 13,500 businesses currently registered with the Supplier Development Programme to access its full calendar of free events as well as bespoke training designed for electrical contractors that will be delivered at SELECT’s campus located just outside of Edinburgh.

Gillian Cameron, SDP Programme Manager, said:

“We are delighted that SELECT has taken the essential step forward to demonstrate its commitment to best practice in procurement by becoming SDP Scotland’s first ever Trade Association Member.

“The Supplier Development Programme will now provide an essential support mechanism for SELECT’s members, many of which are micro SMEs, through our existing free face-to-face workshops and webinars. We will also work with SELECT to provide tendering training to SMEs in electrical contracting to improve upon and maximise their procurement knowledge to find, win and keep public sector contracts.”

Alan Wilson, Managing Director of SELECT said:

“We are delighted to join as a partner with the Supplier Development Programme. It’s vital that businesses of all sizes are given the opportunity to grow and develop and we are excited to see how SDP will help SELECT members to improve their opportunities in bidding for and winning public sector work.”

Ends



Notes for Editors

• SDP is a publicly-funded partnership led by Local Authorities, working in conjunction with Scottish Government and other public bodies, to bring Scottish SMEs support in all aspects of tendering. By assisting businesses to become tender ready for public procurement, SDP improves all-round efficiency, sustainability and market potential.
• In Scotland, there is an annual public spend of £11billion. In the UK, there is an annual public spend of £240billion. SDP Scotland offers free training throughout Scotland to Scottish SMEs to support and champion them tendering for this work.
• SDP Trade Association Membership provides a connection to early market awareness and promotion of potential tender/supply chain opportunities; encouragement of participation of SELECT members in tender and supply chain opportunities through upskilling and tender training; and assistance to SELECT to promote the availability of the Supplier Development Programme’s free procurement training to its members. Trade Association Membership of SDP is open to organisations that, whilst not from the wider public sector organisations, are actively involved in supporting SMEs and/or supported businesses in the supply chain and are keen to help their members demonstrate how they can effectively contribute to sustainability and community benefit clauses.