Australian on-demand tradie platform, hipages has been selected by the Department of Education’s (DOE) School Infrastructure (SINSW) entity as the official management system for sourcing local tradies for maintenance projects in NSW public schools.

Following a competitive tender process, hipages was chosen to take on approximately 25,000 opportunities to quote for work through this new streamlined procurement approach. All work will have an estimated total value of $50 million and the DOE has agreed to an initial three-year deal with a two-year option.

The agreement will see asset managers for the state’s schools using a customised hipages app and web-based platform to seamlessly source local and trusted tradie for maintenance jobs up to $10,000.

“With this simpler procurement pathway, the NSW Government can better support opportunities for local businesses to pick up work in their area, driving jobs in regional NSW. We’re also making substantial savings by removing the fees for intermediaries,” minister for education Sarah Mitchell says.

“With this agreement, local tradies across NSW can engage directly and efficiently with the Department of Education for a range of smaller planned maintenance works around their local public schools.”

This sentiment was echoed by hipages co-founder and chief executive Roby Sharon-Zipser whose platform connects to more than 130,000 tradies around the country with over 270 job categories.

“Not only will this partnership help to drive more work for our local and trusted tradies around the state, it will also allow the schools’ asset managers to save a great deal of time through a fast, smooth and easy-to-use solution,” Roby says.

“We are dedicated to connecting Australians with trusted tradies, and a comprehensive screening process is undertaken in order for tradies to gain access to hipages. All tradie members must have an ABN, hold their appropriate licences, as well as pass insolvency checks and make a pledge to act with the utmost professionalism.”