The South Australian Government is attempting to make it easier for small and medium sized businesses to tender for public sector contracts, with a new training package for operators.

Small Business Minister Tom Kenyon says industry group Business SA has been awarded $60,000 to create a specialised training package for local business to get their heads around the complicated applications process required for tenders in government contracts, helping them present their case effectively and address all the appropriate criteria.

“The new program will also assist them to draft better tender responses, how to demonstrate value for money and innovation in bid responses and how to make better presentations and interviews to assessment panels,” Kenyon said.

The funding is seen as part of a general shift in tender awards away from dumping major projects solely on multi-national suppliers, toward awards for local industry members and small companies to take on public sector work.

Governments in Queensland, New South Wales, Western Australia and South Australia as well as on the federal level have gradually moved to smaller, tailored deals, to more directly benefit workers.

Kenyon says he hopes the training package will address a major complaint: “Small business is telling us that understanding what agencies want and producing better tender documents is often a barrier to winning work from government,” he said.