Further Education Teacher Recruitment - Lead Creative and Strategy Agency

The Department for Education require an agency to provide lead strategic and creative services for the Further Education (FE) teacher recruitment campaign. A sub-brand of the master 'teaching' brand, this campaign operates in a different space to schools, encouraging industry professionals to 'share their skills' by teaching in FE. Further Education is any education for people aged 16 and over who aren't studying for a degree. It offers a huge range of opportunities across vocational, technical and academic subjects, with many classes taught in true to life working environments. This is a really exciting brief and provides agencies with the opportunity to shape what is still a relatively new campaign at the very heart of the Government's 'opportunity - skills for growth' mission - with the provision of FE teachers essential to address skills gaps, boost productivity and support levelling up. FE workforce shortfalls have reached critical levels, with FE providers losing more teachers than they recruit, and total teacher numbers declining year on year despite recent increases in learners. The campaign is therefore a critical lever in helping to combat vacancies in the sector by ensuring a sufficient supply of high-quality teachers - with particular focus on those industries/subjects with the highest teaching vacancy rates. Teaching in Further Education provides an opportunity for those working in a huge range of professional industries (such as construction, healthcare, manufacturing) to share their valuable expertise with learners and help train up the next generation of learners in their field. The campaign therefore aims to increase the pool of skilled industry professionals that would consider becoming an FE teacher by improving attitudes (Awareness, understanding and perception) of FE teaching, and driving action to learn more and apply. We are seeking a strategic and creative agency that can build on the learnings from the current campaign, and develop a new insight based strategy and creative platform that will motivate audiences. The winning agency will develop new creative materials for paid media activity launching in 2026 in channels such as TV, radio, digital and social. We expect any approach to be a significant departure from the current campaign - which was developed for when the campaign first launched in 2022. An example from the previous TV advertising can be found in the links section of this notice.

IMPORTANT: please see the 'Additional Text' section of this notice for details of how/where the competition will be launched, and how to register your organisation on the required platforms.

Additional information: The purpose of this notice is to inform the market of a potential future procurement exercise to appoint a supplier to work with the Department for Education. It is not a call for competition, nor is it a guarantee that a competition will be published, although we do expect to launch the procurement in Jan 2025.

This opportunity will be conducted under the Crown Commercial Service's 'Communications Marketplace DPS' (RM6124). In order to have the opportunity to be selected for the competition, you must be registered on the Communications Marketplace DPS (RM6124), and ensure you have the appropriate categories of expertise selected. The expected Filters to be used to shortlist suppliers are: 'Creative Development and Execution' > 'Creative Strategy, Ideation, Testing and Core messages'. Please note: these may be subject to change at the Department's discretion. The formal Call for Competition itself will be conducted via the Department for Education's Jaggaer e-Tendering Portal. You must therefore *also* be registered on Jaggaer to receive the invitation to tender, ask clarification questions and submit a bid. Further information about how to register on the Communications Marketplace DPS (RM6124) and how to register on Jaggaer can be found in the Links section of this notice. If you are already registered on both platforms, please ensure your records are up to date.

We encourage suppliers to register as soon as possible on the DPS, and Jaggaer, to ensure your registration(s) are processed in time for the expected competition launch in Jan. 2025.