Six Pillars to Training Success
Maximise your return on training investments
"The most comprehensive introduction to procurement best practice I have experienced"
Strategic Procurement
London Borough
"I was inspired by your training to approach one of my existing suppliers with renewed vigour. I asked them to explore cost-down opportunities and as a result we are putting in place new arrangements that will save us £20,000 a year for the next four years while maintaining their existing high levels of quality."
Rob Wolfe
Head of Local Taxation
South Staffordshire District Council
Workshops
Our workshops motivate and intellectually challenge seasoned purchasing professionals and enlighten non-believers. We create a powerful learning environment, which is especially useful for professionals from other disciplines who need to influence and involve themselves in purchasing.
When you invest to develop expertise you should do so with the aim of achieving a return of many multiples on that investment. This could be a return that emanates:
- Directly from a workshop or a series of workshops, for example when participants solve a specific problem or identify a way to improve performance during the workshop; or
- Indirectly when participants are back in their workplaces and, over time, their improved performance achieves better results, for example better risk management
To achieve the best return we use a mix of theory, practice, feedback, more practice and more feedback, all in a safe non-threatening but stimulating environment. We encourage participants to share their experiences, describe problems and issues they face, and debate potential solutions.
When the workshop ends participants development continues. To achieve the very best results we advise and support managers to reinforce the appropriate application of participants' new and improved skills. We often help out more directly by hosting a reinforcing workshop or a surgery to help participants apply their skills to specific problems in their workplaces.
Some of our workshops
This is a selection of our more popular purchasing workshops.
- Essentials of procurement
- Essentials of negotiation
- Writing effective specifications
- Contract and supplier management
- Strategic procurement awareness
- Buying consultancy services
- Financial understanding for procurement
- Evaluating potential suppliers
- Partnership working
- Procurement project management
Most workshops take place over one-day allowing participants to learn and still manage their workload. When clients need participants to develop and refresh a range of skills we combine several one-day workshops into a series. For example we provided a local authority with nine different workshops, many running more than once, over a period of 12-months. This also included a straightforward test; those who passed were awarded a 'licence to procure'.