The Remote training on Bid Preparation and Submission offers a modern approach to business proposal writing and paragraphing principles.
In times like this, the remote approach was the best way to ensure the safety of the participants.
Our remote training was held in June 2020, on the video and audio conferencing platform – Zoom. The daily meetings lasted for three hours with 10 minutes break in between. Taking our participants’ daily duties into consideration, the training program took place in the late afternoon (local time).
Truly, remote training has some limitations compared to face-to-face programs. Nevertheless, it offers adequate time for interaction, online quizzes, polls, and activities that consequently increase effectiveness.
The facilitator considered all these advantages and disadvantages and still managed to obtain highly positive remarks from the participants.
Remote Training on Bid Preparation and Submission Description
This training course offered the participants:
- A reminder of the basic rules of business writing;
- An approach to modern proposal writing and paragraphing principles;
- The tools needed to practice persuasive business writing with international development organizations;
- Comparison of UN, World Bank, USAID and EU tendering, proposal evaluation, and contract award mechanisms;
- The ability to use proper tone in business writing
The participants of the remote training were senior managers of a construction and services company in East Africa. In fact, their pre-test results showed that they have good prior experience in bid preparation and proposal writing.
Day One of the Remote Training on Bid Preparation and Submission
Firstly, on day one, the participants took a pre-test and expressed their expectations.
Specifically, the training program contained the basic principles of business writing and the difference between proposals and other business communications. The facilitators explained the 7 C’s in business writing – completeness, conciseness, consideration, concreteness, clarity, courtesy, and correctness. Additionally, they covered the need for assessment tools and briefly reviewed RFP’s/RFQ’s and BoQ.
Day Two of the Remote Training on Bid Preparation and Submission
Program for the second day of the training:
- Explaining logical framework and project planning
- The importance of setting Project Goals and Objectives
- Setting up Project Strategy/activities formulation
- Competitive bid preparation (winning a tender price)
- To illustrate, covering the client tendering process
- Covering client needs in tendering
- Explanation on how are tenders evaluated
Day Three of the Remote Training
Furthermore, on the third day, the program contained:
- Gender, environmental, and child rights consideration in project planning
- Resources estimation and budgeting for development projects
- Action planning for project proposals
- Solicited and Unsolicited proposals
- On the other hand – How to avoid tender horror stories
- The key deliverables for a winning bid
- For example – How to submit a winning response
- Bidding party tendering process
Day Four of the Remote Training
Afterward, on the fourth day, the facilitators introduced the participants with:
- Common UN recommended forms and proposal formats
- Main components of a proposal
- Documents required for supporting the proposal
- A complete response to tender
- Developing compliant response
- Structure of a comprehensive response
- Writing a compelling response
- Bid requirements
Day Five of the Remote Training
Next on the program were:
- Proofreading, peer review, and revision
- Ensuring the requirements and administrative regulations
- Proposal checklist
- Packaging/online submission hints
- Post-submission activities
- Additionally, award management
In the final analysis, it was concluded that the facilitators, as well as the participants, were satisfied with the outcome.
For instance, here are some of the positive comments from the participants:
“I liked the timing, presentation and the discussions (especially during the 7Cs of communication). The Trainer has demonstrated to my satisfaction”.
“The learning material, the trainer, and his teaching approach focusing on case studies was what I liked the most. It was very interesting and useful training. I am honored to be a part of this training. In addition, I have learned so many new concepts and strategies to improvise our current tender proposals. I would like to learn and gain more knowledge from Accordemy in the future“.
Additionally, here is a video showing how the Remote Training on Bid Preparation and Submission looked like.
