Commerce Edge Academy (CEA) has launched its online student support technology, TEBLOS, which has enabled the registered international study centre for the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (CIPS) to begin tutoring students studying CIPS Level 4: Foundation Diploma in Purchasing & Supply, Andrew C. Hillman, Director of Commerce Edge Academy, tells SmartProcurement.
TEBLOS is the web-based student support forum for CEA’s unique Tutor Enabled Blended Learning, which delivers the CIPS education programme. The learning programme is a combination of self study, online MCIPS tutor support and revision workshops. The academy coaches students every step of the way to ensure that they are fully prepared for CIPS examinations.
CIPS Level 5 will be available in Q4 2009 and level 6 in Q1 2010.
“CEA’s CIPS Case Study Day and 1-Day revision workshops for level 4 are planned between September and November and are specifically designed to ready students for examination in November 2009,” says Hillman.
The Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (CIPS) offers qualifications that are widely regarded as an international benchmark of excellence, enhancing the standards of professionalism and performance throughout purchasing and supply.
Procurement practitioners in Africa can attain CIPS qualifications through CIPS study centres, such as CEA, and can achieve the internationally recognised Graduate Diploma in Purchasing and Supply.
Are you suitably qualified to carry out your role as a procurement professional?
Twenty first century procurement practitioners are increasingly required to work in a diverse, complex and fragmented environment. Supply chains have become ever more complex, offering new challenges every day as a result of changing market structures; globalisation and the growing economic strength of developing countries; technological advances; sustainability and the call for improved ethical business practices.
The procurement of goods and services is a key strategic function that should be managed and directed by professionals. On an individual basis, research indicates that goods and services procurement can account for approximately two thirds of an organisation’s non-human resource expenditure.
A recent survey found that CIPS qualifications are increasingly being demanded by employers as a key component of appointment and promotion and that procurement professionals who hold a CIPS qualification earn approximately 20% more than their peers who do not, says Hillman.
“Only in recent years has procurement professionalism been clearly recognised and defined. Procurement is too often undertaken without professional support, which erodes value for money and asks that unnecessarily high prices be paid for goods and services. Delivery of effective procurement outcomes requires investment in the enhancement of skills and professionalism of procurement practitioners,” he notes.
Achieving professional standing requires a combination of workplace experience, capability training, pathways to tertiary education, and a clear appreciation of the need for ongoing applied learning and professional development, he concluded.
Andrew Hillman can be contacted at cips@commerce-edge.com
