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Pathways Concierge

Customized, complementary professional education services to help guide your career journey.

NIGP Pathways Concierge Program

Employees come into our profession from an array of backgrounds, commonly without procurement-specific education or training. Yet they are expected to play a public role that demands both in-depth knowledge of detailed policies and procedures and the soft skills necessary to respond to sensitive situations. This creates a need for specific, life-long training, education, and credentialling (e.g. professional certification) that relate to standard staff positions.

In response to these needs, NIGP is now offering customized, complementary individual and organizational professional education concierge services.

Interested in NIGP Pathways Concierge?

Contact Cheral and Todd for an initial discussion.

Cheral Manke, NIGP-CPP, CPPO, CPPB, CPM
Cheral.Manke@des.wa.gov
360.407.9402

Todd Slater, PhD.
TSlater@nigp.org
703.429.2614

WORKPLACE DEMANDS

Today’s procurement industry is being buffetted by the winds of a number of national and global trends, problems, and outright disasters, contributing to high-pressure demands across the industry. Being able to adequately respond to supply chain issues, labor shortages, greenhouse gas initiatives, and sustainability regulations requires a stable, motivated, educated staff pool. Employees must be given opportunities to stay current to meet the rising demands of their organizations and profession.

INVEST IN LEARNING

While being able to recruit and maintain a strong, consistent workforce is essential to the growth of the industry, so too is teaching new and established procurement professionals the skills they need to wisely dispense trillions of public dollars each year. Providing crucial training, educational options, and certification opportunities promotes employee satisfaction and organizational excellence and growth. When entities invest in their employees and provide multi-year funding to expand their knowledge, skills, and abilities, they increase the motivation of those employees to stay and grow at their own organizations. Maintaining a skilled workforce benefits not only staff, but also their internal clients, suppliers, elected officials, and taxpayers.

Emily Brown
Program Support Specialist
Clark Regional Wastewater District

I can’t thank the NIGP Concierge Service enough for helping me begin my procurement journey. Being new to a procurement specific role, as well as new to NIGP, I had no idea where to begin. Based on the small questionnaire, your team was able to get me in the right direction. It was a huge added benefit to do a live video meeting with you and really dive into some more detailed information regarding my goals for my career and the best next steps. I was able to get into the Procurement Associate Intensive course which helped me dive right into the fundamentals of the procurement process. I cannot recommend NIGP and the Concierge Service enough. It is a huge support that many people should take advantage of. I look forward to continuing my journey with NIGP to help give me the added tools I need to be successful.
Michael Simkhin, CPIM, CPA
Procurement Manager
Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago

We embarked on an agency-wide initiative to have our entire buying staff obtain an NIGP certification within two years. Our staff had varying degrees of education, experience, interest, and long term goals. I reached out to the Todd Slater to help develop a personalized path of NIGP coursework that would align with each staff member, and fit within the scope of a pre-existing master-training agreement we already had in place with the NIGP. Todd worked for weeks on various iterations of this training plan, and in the end we developed a two-year plan that would provide an NIGP course-based learning background, culminating in an NIGP certification specific for each staff member. It was a pro-active, highly-successful, and for our agency, a first-of-its-kind approach to professionally developing our staff. The end game produced a highly-motivated, and highly-satisfied, buying staff which now provides best-practice procurement service and processing. The experience could not have been better. Here’s a professional shout out to Todd and the rest of the NIGP concierge staff for helping make this initiative happen!

Emily Brown
Program Support Specialist
Clark Regional Wastewater District

I can’t thank the NIGP Concierge Service enough for helping me begin my procurement journey. Being new to a procurement specific role, as well as new to NIGP, I had no idea where to begin. Based on the small questionnaire, your team was able to get me in the right direction. It was a huge added benefit to do a live video meeting with you and really dive into some more detailed information regarding my goals for my career and the best next steps. I was able to get into the Procurement Associate Intensive course which helped me dive right into the fundamentals of the procurement process. I cannot recommend NIGP and the Concierge Service enough. It is a huge support that many people should take advantage of. I look forward to continuing my journey with NIGP to help give me the added tools I need to be successful.
Michael Simkhin, CPIM, CPA
Procurement Manager
Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago

We embarked on an agency-wide initiative to have our entire buying staff obtain an NIGP certification within two years. Our staff had varying degrees of education, experience, interest, and long term goals. I reached out to the Todd Slater to help develop a personalized path of NIGP coursework that would align with each staff member, and fit within the scope of a pre-existing master-training agreement we already had in place with the NIGP. Todd worked for weeks on various iterations of this training plan, and in the end we developed a two-year plan that would provide an NIGP course-based learning background, culminating in an NIGP certification specific for each staff member. It was a pro-active, highly-successful, and for our agency, a first-of-its-kind approach to professionally developing our staff. The end game produced a highly-motivated, and highly-satisfied, buying staff which now provides best-practice procurement service and processing. The experience could not have been better. Here’s a professional shout out to Todd and the rest of the NIGP concierge staff for helping make this initiative happen!

For Individual Members

Through NIGP’s Pathways Concierge progam, experienced procurement and education professionals will talk to members about their career goals, help them identify their best professional path forward, and mentor them along the way using the NIGP Pathways program. Through active listening and thoughtful conversation, our concierge staff will ask procurement professionals about their:

Current roles, responsibilities, and career aspirations
Education, certifications, and work and life experience
Thoughts on how their skills can best contribute to the success of their specific organization

With the information they gather, Pathways concierge professionals can help NIGP members determine the progressive steps required to reach their goals and take advantage of growth opportunities at their organizations and at NIGP. Concierge professionals will teach members how to navigate Pathway’s learning paths, offer customized training recommendations, and mentor them as they move forward in their professional journey.

For Public Entity Organizations

NIGP’s Pathways Concierge helps public entities identify the staff skills necessary to ensure their organizations are up to today’s challenges and create intentional succession plans for the future. Our concierge professionals can review with organizational leaders their:

Unique culture
Current and ongoing organizational challenges
Verticle and horizontal procurement organizational structures n Existing and anticipated organizational staffing needs and gaps
Current vacancies, recruitment activities, and staffing challenges
Customized roadmap for identifying and implementing staff learning, growth, and promotion opportunities relevant to current and future staff positions
Strategy for individual career planning and systemic succession planning

Based on this information, Pathways concierge professionals will identify the training gaps that are keeping individual organizations from reaching their full potential and help them fill those gaps. Concierge professionals will explore with organizations how NIGP Pathways can help them address their staffing challenges by personalizing a training, talent development, and retention plan for individual staff and organizations as a whole.