Digital Literacy and Specialised Digital Training Services

The Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (the dtic) is seeking proposals from South African universities and Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges to deliver digital skills training across all nine provinces for four financial years, from 2026/2027 to 2029/2030. The programme targets 24,246 trainees in two streams: 20,204 unemployed South Africans who will complete a digital literacy course of no more than five days, covering topics such as effective email use, cloud storage, online collaboration and secure online transactions; and 4,042 youth and graduates who will complete a specialised digital course of no more than three months. The specialised course covers areas such as cybersecurity, networking, programming, data analytics and the Internet of Things, and leads to Microsoft and CISCO certificates of completion. All training must be delivered physically, and trainees are required to complete the course.

Each province will be awarded to one preferred bidder, and a single institution may bid for more than one province only by submitting a separate proposal for each. Bidders must be located in, or have satellite campuses in, the province they bid for, and must cover all districts within that province, as listed in the Terms of Reference. Eligibility requires proof of registration with an appropriate SETA or accreditation body, a Central Supplier Database (CSD) registration, valid tax compliance, and evidence of well-established training infrastructure, including computer labs, reliable internet, power backup, and accessible facilities. Institutions may rely on partners through signed MOUs or MOAs. Key staff must meet specified qualification and experience thresholds, including at least five years in digital literacy delivery for the project leader, and the bidding entity must provide at least three reference letters from former clients.

The tender uses a two-envelope system: the functional proposal, which must contain no financial information, is scored first with a 60% minimum threshold, and then price and preferential procurement points are assessed using the 90/10 principle. Financial pricing must be fixed for the full contract period, inclusive of VAT, and submitted on the SBD 3.3 form. Responsibilities include developing assessment tools, training manuals and an implementation plan, marketing the programme, recruiting trainees, providing stipends or refreshments, and submitting evaluation reports and completion records to the dtic. Successful bidders will sign a Service Level Agreement before work begins. The closing date is 27 November 2026 at 11:00, and hard-copy proposals must be deposited in the dtic bid box in Sunnyside, Pretoria, as electronic submissions are not accepted.