Continuing professional development for procurement staff
Continuing professional development (CPD) is very important – even after you successfully complete all your certification training.
It enables you to keep informed on emerging issues and respond effectively to the contemporary demands placed on practitioners.
Your profession demands an ongoing commitment to identify, manage and improve the value achieved when solving a business need, including through leveraging the spending power of government to deliver on various government initiatives.
How CPD can help you
A commitment to lifelong CPD will:
- deliver on the demand for capable, technically skilled procurement professionals who can work in multi-disciplinary teams to get fit-for-purpose procurement outcomes
- help to meet increased demands for services and for services to be provided more quickly
- respond to government drivers to leverage procurement as a tool to achieve social outcomes
- help to manage the impacts of digital disruption from technology on procurement speed to serve
- deliver on public demands for increased transparency.
Actively seeking out and participating in CPD offers you opportunities to:
- remain informed on best practice approaches and emerging trends
- engage with thought leadership
- challenge current ways of thinking and working
- broaden or deepen skills in response to new priorities or expectations
- network with your peers, share your knowledge and learn from others.
Finding the right opportunities
When considering available opportunities, it is useful to understand best practice learning approaches such as the 70:20:10 Learning Model:
- 70%: Experience (No Cost) – application of new knowledge on the job practice. Learning occurs through trial and error
- 20%: Exposure and Environment (No Cost) – those opportunities to practice new skills and receive feedback and coaching. This often occurs at 'point-of-need' (i.e. through others, in the moment)
- 10%: Education and training (Cost) – introduces new knowledge or new ways of viewing your current knowledge and how it might be applied in the workplace.
Low cost or free options
Find out about upcoming CPD opportunities:
- the Buy Queensland Procurement eNewsletter updates subscribers on procurement training and development
- Queensland Government Procurement routinely conducts community of practice events with keynote speakers
- thought leadership in the discipline is also provided to selected agencies via a membership subscription, while
- professional procurement and contract management associations - routinely conduct low cost/no cost CPD events for members
- read the Continuing Professional Development Guide .
Join a professional association
By joining a professional organisation, you can:
- maintain current practice
- access CPD
- attend networking events
- access research and thought leadership.
Specialist professional bodies
You may also consider these other Australian bodies:
- Supply Chain and Logistics Association of Australia (SCLAA)
- Australasian Fleet Management Association (AFMA)
- Procurement and Supply Australasia – PASA CONNECT
- Australian Institute of Project Management (AIPM)
Procurement graduates
Find out more
Email skills2procure@epw.qld.gov.au to find out more about what is happening to support your CPD.