Core Certificate: Foundations of Planning and Analysis

Description

For the public procurement professional, the ability to think strategically for both the procurement function and the larger governmental entity as a whole is critical to serving the communities in which we live and work. Designed to outline proactive, applicable approaches to ensuring best practice guidance and implementation, NIGP’s Foundations of Planning and Analysis Core Certificate empowers novice public procurement professionals to better identify and articulate the goals and objectives of public procurement. Outlining and exploring critical skills such as strength and weakness evaluation, opportunities and threat analysis, and stakeholder-end user engagement, the Foundations of Planning and Analysis certificate prepares learners with base-level interactive and exercise-driven instruction, providing best practice guidance to help you not only lead your entity to successful risk-averse strategy but also to secure the best benefit for stakeholders and communities alike.

Objectives

Upon successful completion of the certificate, the certificate holder will be able to:

• Analyze the requirements for a project and provide the best solutions for the entity.
• Determine the components and criteria required to successfully award a contract that meets the needs of the end user.
• Describe how to customize terms and conditions in a contract to meet the entity’s needs.
• Evaluate, select, and apply the tools and processes available for a comprehensive procurement plan.
• Analyze the requirements of various internal stakeholders in order to adopt one set of specifications for commonly procured commodities.
• Design contracts that satisfy the shared needs of multiple internal stakeholders to promote efficiency of the procurement function.
• Evaluate cost and price data to determine total cost of ownership to an entity.
• Compare the price of a commodity against the benefit to be derived by the entity to determine whether the expenditure is justifiable.

Intended Audience

This certificate is targeted to individuals who meet or exceed the following professional demographics:

• Entry-level public procurement and central warehouse professionals who serve as assistants, coordinators, buyers, or equivalent functions within their respective entities.
• Non-procurement managers and supervisors who are responsible for either the procurement function or staff who provide procurement functions under delegated authority.
• Professionals who are employed by governing entities and special authorities (such as K-12 and higher education, publicly-owned utilities, transportation providers, and other publicly-funded or created organizations) that either serve within or manage the procurement function.
• Suppliers or representatives of suppliers seeking to understand the public procurement function from a holistic level, including the policies, standards, and procedures by which public entities must function.

Pre-Work

Prior to entering the classroom environment, students will be enrolled in the following self-paced courses to learn and practice necessary concepts.

NIGP has not currently identified if pre-work is necessary for this core certificate. Should pre-work be identified, learners will receive the materials two weeks prior to the physical start date. Contact hours will be adjusted to include pre-work.