E-government Unit: Procurement Training Course

New training programme leads to government savings The new public sector procurement training programme will lead to increased savings across government, the director of the State Services Commission's E-government Unit, Mr Laurence Millar, announced today.

"Syndicated procurement arrangements across the public sector are delivering significant savings to government departments. The increasing volume of these contracts is delivering more economical and collaborative e-government to all New Zealanders," Mr Millar said.

Syndicated procurement deals are contracts where agencies collaborate to increase their purchasing power and win better prices from suppliers.

In order to foster the continued expansion of this practice and to ensure that best practice procurement standards are promoted across the sector, the State Services Commission's Syndicated Procurement Unit and the Public Sector Training Organisation -in conjunction with senior procurement experts from several agencies- have developed a procurement training and education programme.

Mr Millar said "this course is the first of it's kind in New Zealand, and signals our ongoing commitment to delivering innovative and collaborative e-government."

Jay Lamburn, Executive Director, Public Sector Training Organisation said "it also recognizes the importance of providing career building training opportunities for employees in the public sector."

The programme comprises an entry level Certificate and a Diploma for people already working in this area of procurement. "The National Certificate and the National Diploma of Public Sector Procurement are expected to be registered on the NZQA National Qualifications Framework by the end of the year," Ms Lamburn said.

Assessment will be practically focussed and primarily based on the collection of evidence from the workplace. Trained assessors, with expertise in public sector procurement, will carry out the assessments.

A further series of courses, running parallel with the formal qualifications, are also being offered on procurement topics such as ethics, risk management and tendering.

The qualifications are closely aligned to the Australian Certificate IV in Government (Procurement and Contracting) developed by Public Service and Training Australia.

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