Enhancing your procurement skills

Many of us purchase products and services but not everyone has had recent procurement training to be able to get the best value from the purchasing process. Whether procurement is a large part of your role or a task you complete occasionally, there are free accredited courses available that will help you save time and budget, whilst ensuring quality goods and services are received

Good quality training courses often come with a hefty price tag attached but this is not always the case. There is currently the opportunity to attend fully accredited procurement courses which are funded in full by the education sector owned charity CPL Group, for all school, academy, and MAT professionals.
    
You can enhance your procurement skills at a pace that suits you through online learning platforms, so there is no need to commit to a certain day or time. Enabling you the freedom to learn around your needs and learning style.
    
Here are the details of six courses which you can start accessing for free now, there is no need to get any budget sign-off and you can start developing your procurement skills straightaway.

An introduction to procurement

If you’re new to procurement and you’re looking for a place to start, an online learning programme is available called ‘An introduction to procurement’. It features five e-learning modules that cover the fundamental principles of good procurement practice. The programme has been specifically designed for Business Managers and those new to procurement or with procurement responsibility in an educational setting. It offers a unique learning style and is CPD accredited. On completion, you have the opportunity to download a certificate to evidence your training.

Writing a tender specification

Learn how to construct and carry out a tender specification. This course explains how the requirements for transparency and non-discrimination impact the specification, how to get your criteria and weightings right for the benefit of all stakeholders and the importance of life-cycle costing. It also covers the elements that are non-negotiable once published and how you can benefit by factoring in the outputs and outcomes of the procurement to the tender specification. This course is accessed via the BIP Solutions e-learning platform.

Evaluation techniques

This course explains evaluation at the selection and award stages of public procurement processes, plus you will learn about the different evaluation approaches to these two stages. This 12 chapter course on the BIP Solutions platform details where additional criteria may be included in evaluation models and provides examples of legal challenges to specifications. It also provides you with an understanding of financial evaluation and the standard differential model plus it explains the pros and cons of cost versus price.

Ethical procurement and supply

Ethical behaviour is everyone’s responsibility in an organisation and this e-learning course will help anyone with procurement responsibility to demonstrate commitment to acting ethically. It is designed to help prevent issues regarding fraud, bribery and corruption, human rights abuses, and the impact of procurement on the environment. This course is completed via the CIPS e-learning platform.

Public procurement law conference

Access the on-demand procurement conference for 2021 ‘Awarding Public Contracts Skilfully and Lawfully within the Procurement Rules’. The topics and specific wording of the questions have been devised with the help of 173 past attendees and they cover evaluation, future-proofing, social value, aggregation, reforms, early involvement, contract phase and incentive contracts.
This is CPD accredited advanced level learning available through the Whitepaper Conference and it offers a great balance of relevant talks and a second-to-none speaker line-up. It’s suitable for those directly involved in awarding contracts subject to The Public Contracts Regulations 2015.

Developing & managing contracts

This course gives you an in-depth understanding in relation to developing and managing contracts. It covers developing a contract and how this allows the parties involved to fully understand their obligations and the key success criteria, plus it explains how this is the foundation to managing the contract and relationship effectively. This course gives you an in-depth understanding of contracts over 15 e-learning modules on the CIPS e-learning platform.

CPL Group

The CPL Group is an education owned charity that gives back to the sector through the funding of projects that support teaching and learning. The Charity is currently offering the range of courses detailed in this article at no cost for education sector professionals. Please see www.cpl.group for more information.
    
Crescent Purchasing Consortium (CPC) and Tenet Education Services are not-for-profit organisations which are part of the CPL Group. CPC is a purchasing consortium with over 90 procurement framework agreements designed specifically for the education sector with a large number being recommended by the Department for Education. Tenet Education Services provides procurement consultancy support to education institutions managing tender process and procurement placements.