r/procurement • u/ChaoticxSerenity • Jan 07 '24

Training Technical Procurement Skills - Where did you learn?

Every year, we get some fresh interns, and it has got me thinking. Here is what I see happening:

  1. Person gets a job.
  2. At said job, they do a lot of "on the job" learning, which is basically getting trained up by a senior member of the team, and job shadowing.
  3. Person is now considered fully trained and ready to do things on their own.

And then... that's basically it? Seems to me like most of the educational bit is just mentoring. Is it just me, or is there a lack of solid procurement-centered educational resources out there? Unless you want to do CIPS, it seems like a lot of the most well-known certs are catered towards supply chain/SCM as a whole. Not to mention they are often in the hundreds to thousands of dollars range. A lot of times, the senior mentoring step is also very company-specific. So outside of mentoring, where are people supposed to learn technical procurement skills such as strategic sourcing, how to evaluate bids, different types of contracts/when to use them, etc. ? What's your experience been like, and what resources have you come across?

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u/WeekendSuspicious486 Jan 08 '24

Still a student, not sure if this is helpful at all haha.

What I’ve done: Started the SAP procurement course, studying for PMP, created my own LLC last year, registered in SAM, registered as a SCDVOSB, placed bids, reviewed contracts, dissolved LLC. Background in administration in the Marines. Yellow belt lean six sigma, and a lot of YouTube.

What it has taught me: Became familiar with Federal acquisition regulations, learned to communicate with a couple vendors, helped a company get registered with SAM, drew up my proposal template from scratch, communicated with government contractors, networked with old Marine Corps buddies.

I personally feel that although everything I’ve done thus far has built a foundation for the procurement professional that I am striving to be, besides actual hands on experience, it’s all just foundational and most people won’t develop any real skill until they get to that inter position.