1.4 Procurement Skills

The Procurement Competency Framework recommended that skill levels of procurement staff should be continuously improved through programmes of professional training and development. Training for staff involved in the procurement process should be considered by organisations as an investment. The recruitment and retention of suitably qualified staff is essential. Organisations should implement a process to assess, at regular intervals, their organisation's procurement capability and develop training and development strategies which ensure that their procurement activity is both compliant with legislation and obtaining value for money.

The diversity of the work involved in procurement necessitates that procurement staff are required to be competent in a wide variety of generic procurement skills in addition to the specific technical skills and knowledge required when procuring for different sectors and commodities.

Registers of Scotland procurement staff conduct a periodic skills assessment using the Scottish Governments Procurement Competency Framework.  The output of this exercise leads to individual training plans.