About the job

Job summary

This is an exciting opportunity to begin a career in commercial procurement and supply.  In this role, you will work as part of a fast-paced customer focused commercial team and undertake the Level 4 Commercial Procurement & Supply Apprenticeship.

An Apprenticeship provides work-based, on the job training and development. This is fully funded so it doesn’t cost you anything – and you’ll earn whilst you learn.  It will provide you with the skills, knowledge and behaviours you need to be fully effective in a designated role.

To help you manage your learning we will give you, over the duration of the Apprenticeship, a minimum of 20% of your paid working hours to focus on skills development.

You will be assessed throughout and at the end of your Apprenticeship by submitting coursework, undertaking exams and presenting your work.

Further information can be found in the Apprenticeship Standard.

There you can also find a link to the assessment plan. This will give you details of how the apprenticeship is assessed.  For this programme, you will undertake nine exams in the first 12 months and once successful in these, you will undertake a 5,000-word project in 3 months.

https://www.instituteforapprenticeships.org/apprenticeship-standards/commercial-procurement-and-supply-formerly-public-sector-commercial-professional-v2-1

Apprenticeship Eligibility Criteria:

This is a development role so to be eligible to apply, the training and development you receive during this apprenticeship must provide you with significant new skills and learning. This is an essential requirement for apprenticeship funding and means you must not already be over-qualified or over-experienced in this type of work.

In addition, you must:

●      Not hold or be working towards a similar level or higher-level qualification to the apprenticeship unless this is in a significantly different subject/business area.

●      Be aged 18 or over (there is no upper age limit).

●      Have the permanent right to work in the UK and have been ordinarily resident in the UK/EU/EA for 3 consecutive years before starting the apprenticeship.

●      Have left full-time education by the time the apprenticeship starts and not be in receipt of funding for other learning programmes (including another apprenticeship)

●      5 GCSEs or equivalent in Maths and English at Grade 4/C or above or equivalent.

●      2 A-levels or equivalent

Please Note:

If you do not meet the above apprenticeship criteria, we cannot progress your application for this role and your application will not be considered.

Job description

Would you like to be part of a growing, dynamic team within the Facilities Management (FM)Category? 

Would you like to take ownership of FM Call Off projects and provide value added services to our customers, helping to achieve our stretching growth targets? 

Do you thrive going the extra mile for our customers? 

Job Summary

You will support the Commercial Managers on specific call -off projects to ensure delivery of compliant tenders and contract awards. 

You will be responsible for supporting customers with call off related queries at each appropriate stage of the process, adding value and building and maintaining effective customer relationships. 

Commercial Directorate Overview

Commercial is the largest directorate in CCS and is responsible for the design, development, implementation and management of our commercial agreements, which are used by our customers across the public sector. We have helped our customers:

• spend more than £34 billion through the agreements we create

• enjoy more than £3.5 billion in commercial benefits annually through our agreements

Category management sits at the heart of CCS. We use our deep knowledge and expertise of public sector suppliers, to create market and category strategies. These strategies are used within CCS to create market leading commercial agreements that help shape how common goods and services are bought across the public sector. Our skills are also used in carrying out commercial policy, development of new products and services and supplier relationship management.

Team Summary

FM sits within the Estates Group (including FM – Hard/Soft, Healthcare, Security, Furniture, Estates Management Services, Housing, Waste, Food, Security, Cleaning, Bespoke Defence FM). 

 

The Commercial Practitioner will join an impactful customer focused team of 13, who aid customers with various diverse procurement needs and complexities across all FM agreements.  

Key Responsibilities:

You will:

• Deliver an excellent value-added service to our customers, assisting customers in achieving long term value for money and more robust contracts via CCS FM agreements.

• Guide customers through the commercial procurement process in preparation for going to market on time (via self-serve or CCS Assisted Service route). This will include the preparation of commercial documents (for example, specifications (non-technical), award criteria, Terms and Conditions, pricing and Key Performance Indicators - KPIs) and involve regular meeting attendance, to track progress and discuss issues. 

• Develop and maintain a knowledge of Commercial Agreements in the FM category, acting as a source of sound commercial insight and advice including specifications, terms and conditions,  FM pricing, data, KPIs and payment mechanisms.

• Project manage relevant Call Off activity of low / medium complexity and value. Including leading the management of one or more call off projects during pre and post tender activity. Provide support to Commercial Managers on medium / high complexity and value projects.

• Develop close and collaborative relationships with a variety of stakeholders including external customers, internal colleagues across the FM category, CCS Procurement Operations Team and the wider organisation where relevant.  

• Provide call off advice across CCS FM agreements which will include the collation of call off pricing to produce benchmark rates post award and FM Data Insights (including commercial, change and social value benefits).  You will ensure alignment to social value policy and the Sourcing Playbook.

Person specification

Essential Criteria (To be assessed at application stage):​

• Experience of building and maintaining customer relationships and supporting customers within a business environment

• Proactive approach to analysing problems and developing solutions in order to deliver operational and commercial efficiencies and more effective ways of working

• Knowledge of how to prioritise workload and work at a pace, working on multiple customer call off projects at any one time

Desirable Criteria: 

• Competent Excel/Google Sheets experience (for example of writing/troubleshooting formulas, pivot tables, data validation and conditional formatting)

In the of a high number of applications, the desirable criteria will be used as a second sift.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £34,206, Crown Commercial Service contributes £9,269 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Things you need to know

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Strengths and Experience.

Selection Process

Candidates who are successful at sift will be contacted as soon as possible following the closing date and advised of the interview process in more detail. The sift will commence WC 17th June and interviews will be held from 25th June onwards either at one of our offices or via video with interview times and dates to be confirmed. (Subject to change)

To find out more about our recruitment process please click here

Please note: Applicants can make use of artificial intelligence but the information presented at application must be factual.

A reserve list may be held for up to 6 months, which the Civil Service may use to fill future suitably similar vacancies across government for candidates who are considered appointable following interview. Should you be placed on a reserve list and want to be removed please contact recruitment@crowncommercial.gov.uk.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is counter-terrorist check (opens in a new window).

See our vetting charter (opens in a new window). People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window). The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.