A wide-ranging review of education and training for the Armed Forces and MOD civilians began in 1999 and the Defence Training Review (DTR) ‘Modernising Defence Training’ Report was endorsed and published in 2001.
Among the DTR’s recommendations was that the delivery of some types of Phase 2 and Phase 3 specialist training should be rationalised on a tri-service or MOD wide basis.
The DTR Rationalisation Programme aims to introduce modern training methods and technology and concentrate training on to a reduced number of sites to give MOD the flexibility it needs to match training demand to Defence needs.
The disciplines in scope are:
Aeronautical Engineering
Communications and Information Systems
Electro-Mechanical Engineering
Logistics
Joint Personnel Administration
Service Police and MOD Police and Guarding
Security, Languages, Intelligence and Photography
These have been divided into two contractual packages:
Package 1: Aeronautical Engineering (AE), Mechanical Engineering (EM) and Communications and Information Systems (CIS).
Package 2: Logistics (Logs), Joint Police (JP) & Personnel Administration (PA) and Security, Languages, Intelligence and Photography (SLIP).
An Integrated Project Team (IPT) was established in 2001 to drive forward the DTR Rationalisation Programme and engage with industry to develop solutions to modernise training delivery and training facilities. The MOD’s contracting strategy for the DTR Programme, developed with the MOD Private Finance Unit and the Treasury, confirmed the suitability and probity of a 25 year PFI/Partnership as the procurement route for this complex change programme. Below is a synopsis of key IPT events to date:
Fri 22 Nov 02 saw the issue of the Preliminary Information Memorandum (PIM) to prospective tenders seeking to pre qualify to negotiate for the Public Private Partnership (PPP).
A DTR Industry Day was held on 27 Nov 2002 to engage with Industry in taking forward the delivery of the programme and to launch the Rationalisation Programme Assessment Phase. Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (USofS) for Defence and Minister for Veterans, Dr Lewis Moonie MP was the key note speaker.
Approval for the release of Invitations to Negotiate to short listed bidders was given on Tuesday 16th November 2004. The Bidding Consortia are:
Package 1: MC3 and METrIX
Package 2: Holdfast and METrIX
(Details of the Bidding Consortia are shown under Related Pages/Documents.)
Bids were received for Package 1 on 17 October 2005 and Package 2 on 14 November 2005. Evaluation of the Bids is underway. A decision on Preferred Bidder is anticipated later this year.
