Make your business an attractive prospect
for the region’s biggest contractors
Your guide to finditinsandwell and finditinbirmingham’s
Construction Commitments awareness training ...
“Iwould recommend the
two-day course to anyone,
you are guaranteed to come
out much more aware of the
potential for your company."
Fred Rose, Need A Skip
“Excellent, the course will
really push my business
forward at a fast pace.”
Tom Billingham,
T&L Commercial Interiors
“I was educated and
enlightened and, the course,
I feel, will bring value to my
own working life as well as to
the company I work for and
ultimately will lead to deliver-
ing superior value to all our
clients.”
Pauraic Sweeney, Forkers
“Great initiative to encourage
local trading and really well
run and helpful course.”
Paul Hutchens, Eco2Solar
What are the Construction Commitments and why
are they important to me?
The six Construction Commitments are national guidelines put
together by industry experts to encourage best practice in
construction. They focus on:
 client leadership procurement & integration
 design sustainability
 commitment to people health & safety.
Being aware of the Commitments will help you submit PQQs (pre-
qualification questionnaires) and tenders that are better aligned with
the public sector’s guidelines (and therefore more likely to succeed).
Utilising ERDF (European Regional Development Fund) funding via
WMCCE (West Midlands Centre for Constructing Excellence),
finditinsandwell and finditinbirmingham are running a series of
heavily subsidised two-day workshops to help you boost your
tendering skills and meet the new BSI/PAS 91 standard (which is
essential for pre-qualification to construction tendering).
The workshop will be useful to you if your company:
 is a micro, small or medium-sized contractor
 manufactures or designs construction products
 supplies goods or materials to the building trade
 designs, or offers professional advice, in the built environment
 is a facilities-management service provider.
“WMCCE is delighted to support this important initiative
to help West Midlands SMEs in construction prepare for
and hopefully win contracts locally and therefore to
help keep the „West Midlands pound‟ in the region.”
Phil Wilson, chief executive,
West Midlands Centre for Constructing Excellence
“Any companies that are
thinking of going on this
training, I can highly
recommend it. It's been very
well thought out and over the
long run, you can see the
benefits it will have.”
Paul Banner,
B-Trac Services
“Affirmation of the course by a
principal contractor who
attended ... was also
encouraging.”
Des George,
Anglo Holt Construction Ltd
“This course has been very
informative to me. The knowl-
edge I have received will
benefit my company a great
deal.” Carney Bell,
C D Electrical Services Ltd
“Well prepared and interesting
training programme, very well
delivered.”
Andrew Stapleton, APiC UK
“Very interesting. Made me
realise we need to set up some
new systems and procedures.”
Richard Larner,
RDS Construction
“Valuable information on how
to cope with registration.”
Clive Hylton,
Bazmatic Electrical
"What we're trying to do is build a stronger and deeper
relationship between the public and private sector for
mutual benefits.” Jan Britton,
executive director of urban regeneration,
Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council
So what does this training do?
The two-day course (which is spaced out over a couple of weeks)
raises your awareness of the Construction Commitments, guiding
you through creating a PQQ data set which is second to none. This
data is likely to be useful when answering qualification questions
from private-sector organisations, too.
What sets the course apart from other systems is that you will
receive explanation and guidance as to what lies behind the PQQs
and how to answer them. Having this knowledge at your disposal,
and putting the right policies and documents in place, can help make
your business a lower-risk proposition for clients and contractors who
may be looking for companies to tender for their work.
If there are areas where your business needs attention, our training
providers may be able to point you in the direction of funding in
order for them to give you ongoing support, help you develop your
skills, or produce the necessary policies and procedures.
Once you have completed your online profile and it has passed an
audit for acceptability, your firm can be listed in our secure online
directory of ‘tender ready’ suppliers. Construction buyers and project
decision-makers can log in to this directory and see that you are
competent and capable of bidding for work.
This sets you in great stead for winning new contracts - and, in some
cases, means you won’t have to fill in tiresome pre-qualification
questionnaires (PQQs).
Why are you running this training?
As you may know, Sandwell Council and Birmingham City Council
launched finditinsandwell and finditinbirmingham to:
 boost the area’s economy by encouraging local inter-trading
 help local businesses win their share of the millions of pounds’
worth of regeneration projects taking place in our region.
The training is one of the things we’re doing behind the scenes to
make sure local businesses benefit from the legacy of regeneration
investment being made in Birmingham and Sandwell, and to help
you become confident and capable of winning the work.
As the UK recovers from recession, we want to remind the world that
the West Midlands has a world-class construction industry, and get
money flowing into our region again.

“The Construction
Commitments course has given
me a new outlook completely, I
always moan we never get
larger jobs, 200/300K and I
can see why now. I don‟t know
how we did previously. We
weren't sustainable, not very
environmental and didn't know
what a supply chain was.”
Managing director,
local construction firm.
“Helpful eye opener to review
existing practices.” Dev Masih,
JAW Business Solutions
“A thorough understanding of
the Construction Commitments
benefits us as a medium-sized
company but also smaller
companies that are here as
well. It means really that we
can all work together to a high
quality and standard, and we're
all able to provide services to
larger companies and
organisations, and we know
our standards will comply with
their requirements.”
Ron Pinfield,
CLM Construction Ltd
Why do I need to get involved?
As the UK economy begins its slow recovery, and building and
regeneration projects are resumed, it’s more important than ever to
give your business the edge when pitching for new work.
Also:
 More than 130 representatives from local construction firms
have already taken part in the training, clearly demonstrating
their commitment to constructing best practice. Can you
afford not to be listed alongside them?
 As a direct result of the training, at least two firms (The Brass
Group and MTD Scaffold) have won contracts they would not
have otherwise been
able to go for,
resulting in
thousands of
pounds’ worth of
income.
 Smaller
companies are now
collaborating to
pitch for jobs that
were previously too
unwieldy. You could join them, and open your business out to
new and bigger projects.
 During the training process, you identify all the policies you
need for PQQs, assessing whether what you have already is
good enough. In turn, this may make the tendering process
much easier in the future, whatever the job or whichever
sector you’re pitching to.
 Principal contractors (including Interserve, Thomas Vale,
Skanska and VINCI) are backing the training, using our
directory to source subcontractors and suppliers.
“We‟re happy to say that
Interserve will now count
participation in the Construction
Commitments awareness training
as pre-approval to join our
supply list. That shows how
much we think of the training -
and how we can‟t recommend
enough that you sign up for it.”
Andy Pearson, Associate
Director, Interserve Project
Services
 “I‟m delighted to tell you that
we‟re going to use the
findit supply directory to
source our own suppliers. So if you
think you‟d like to work with us,
perhaps on some of the contracts
we‟ve secured in Sandwell, then
it‟s really important that you
sign up to the training.”
Peter Watson,
Managing Director, Forkers
(civil and ground engineering
contractors)

“Well delivered and very How much is it and where

interactive sessions, pleasing
atmosphere always.”
Mark Astbury,
The Brass Group
“The course was informative
and gave depth to levels of
compliance needed and a wide
perspective for forward
planning and continuous
improvement of the
business. It was very well
planned and presented.”
Sam Williams, Allround
Plumbing
do I sign up?
Our training is heavily subsidised by
the ERDF via WMCCE, so it costs just
£200 per company for the two
sessions (or £100 if you attend in
2010!). You can send two
delegates for this.
If you require follow-up support, our
training providers will do their best
to source funding for your business.
To find out when the next sessions begin, simply call and leave your
details with Steve Massey on 0121 569 2105 or at
stephen_massey@sandwell.gov.uk or Stuart Horton on
0121 303 0005 or at stuart_horton@birmingham.gov.uk.
To give every delegate the best possible care and attention, we only
have space for ten companies on each session.

“Very informative course and So don’t miss out: contact Steve or Stuart today.
was a pleasure to attend as I
have furnished myself with far
more knowledge than I
“I feel privileged working with such a broad range of
anticipated – well done to the
companies to successfully attain a common goal of
tutors.” Larry Mazic,
continuous improvement and helping them become more
Zicam Integrated Security
competitive.” Roy Casey, course facilitator,
Success Train