Raising procurement skills and capability

The Transforming Procurement through Home-Grown Talent project will raise procurement skills and capability across public services. At the core of the project will be the creation of a cadre of trained and experienced officers – drawn from both new graduates and existing staff – who will become our procurement leaders of the future.

There are five strands to the project.

1. Raise awareness with public service leaders

Help public service leaders, including senior managers, to understand how procurement professionals can maximise the tangible social, economic and environmental benefits from the £4.3 billion invested each year on external goods and services. This will be achieved through a series of awareness raising courses and events to share best practice.

2. Develop the skills and capability of existing public service staff

Tailor skills and knowledge development to individual and/or organisational need and level of competence. This will be achieved by building on the current training programme offered through Value Wales.

3. Deliver a Trainee Procurement Executive Programme (TPEP)

Identify new talent for the procurement profession in Wales and offer a procurement training and mentoring programme where participants undertake a series of cross-public service placements whilst delivering projects.

There were two cohorts - 12 new graduates were recruited in 2010, and 12 public sector secondees have been recruited this summer (2011). Trainees will work towards Member of the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (MCIPS) accreditation whilst working on collaborative procurement projects across various organisations. They will also receive project and programme management training. These individuals are expected to become the public service procurement leaders of the future.

4. Accelerate and expand the implementation of e-procurement

Target change management and project management expertise into public service organisations to help them implement and maintain e-procurement systems and to realise the environmental and economic benefits. This will be achieved through using multi-skilled implementation teams to roll out e-procurement across public service organisations in Wales, through the xchangewalesprogramme.

5. Identify innovative approaches to improve procurement 

Pilot new approaches to improve procurement, e.g. collaborative projects, projects involving the third sector and developing pools of category skills. Note that is now planned that this strand will be implemented from project year 4 i.e. from July 2013.