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Introduction **(card 1)** Each year, public sector spending on goods and services procurement provides both small and large businesses with a wide range of work opportunities. No matter how small your business, there is potential for you to become a part of this substantial market by becoming a public sector supplier. What is a tender? One of the key ways in which the public sector buys, or 'procures' goods and services, is via //a tender - a formal document which sets out the proposals and requirements of work to be done.// The tendering process allows the buyer - in this case, the public sector - to set out their requirements and allows suppliers to submit offers to the tender, showing how they intend to meet those requirements.

The public sector employs more than 25 per cent of the workforce in the UK, which includes:
 * central government departments and agencies
 * the NHS and its local trusts
 * the Ministry of Defence
 * the Northern Ireland Assembly, the Welsh Government and the Scottish Government
 * local authorities
 * universities
 * colleges

Whatever your business, there may be a market for it somewhere within the public sector.

Where details of previous experience are asked for, you should make these as relevant as possible to the work that is being tendered.
== As well as showing that you can do the work, the tender will also require you to say how much you will charge for doing it. However, bear in mind, the buyer will not necessarily award the contract to the lowest bidder. Value for money is just as important, particularly for public-sector contracts. ==

The tendering process for public sector contracts
== If you wish to supply goods and services to the public sector, there are several stages you will have to go through. Although the procedure is slightly different for lower-value contracts, the stages are as follows: ==