With the right purchasing education, a properly equipped purchasing professional will be able to locate the appropriate materials to purchase and negotiate the best prices. Purchasing professionals are also expected to handle a broad range of responsibilities and duties, such as understanding and sometimes overseeing the supply chain, dealing directly with vendors and providers and dealing with complex ordering software.

When you're looking for education and training for purchasing professionals, basics to be aware of include:

1. Find out where you can take purchasing classes or acquire other education and training for purchasing professionals.
2. Determine if your work environment has specific needs or product knowledge that requires specialized purchasing training courses.
3. Assess which continuing education courses will keep your purchasing training certifications current and benefit your career.
   

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Find the best source of purchasing training

Purchasing training is available on or offline, in programs that last up to two years or in short multi-day or day-long seminars. Finding the right setting, schedule and goal-oriented purchasing education or training programs is the first step toward making sure that you and your employees receive the best training to meets your needs.

I recommend: Next Level Purchasing offers an online certification program for purchasing professionals, and lists some of the benefits of participating and earning a certification. Learn more about training programs in public purchasing available at The University of Texas at Austin.

Learn purchasing techniques specific to your environment

In specialized environments you may need a specific certificate or training course to be allowed to work as a purchasing professional. In most state purchasing and materials management divisions, for example, you must be able to prove you've had the right training to navigate the paperwork, utilize ordering manuals and address specialized concerns that may arise.

I recommend: Learn about specialized materials management and purchasing training course descriptions and learning goals at the State of Minnesota, Department of Administration. The Office of Federal Environmental Executive offers purchasing training programs oriented specifically toward green purchasing methods and products.

Chart a course for purchasing training continuing education

Your work may not be done yet, even though you've completed the requisite purchasing courses to gain a certification. Many certifications, especially those from the most respected associations, require continuing education hours on a regular basis. Plan to attend seminars or extra classes to maintain a current certification; doing this also lets your clients know that you are serious about staying current and well prepared to serve their needs. You also can convey a well-qualified impression by joining a professional association, such as the American Purchasing Society.

I recommend: Klee Associates offers tips on how and where to find continuing education courses for a variety of major purchasing professional certifications. Join the American Purchasing Society to gain access to professional seminars and training, as well as books, tapes, salary information and more.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  If your employees have completed purchasing agent training, consider providing customer service training courses for them as well. Even though purchasing professionals may not deal directly with the customers that are purchasing an end product, they will often be called upon to deal with their own sort of customer -- distributors and vendors.

Effective purchasing training is critical to the day-to-day operation of your business. It's also crucial to your company's bottom line and, therefore, to its ultimate success. This is true because the expertise and facility that your purchasing professionals bring to your company and to their jobs is directly proportional to both the effectiveness and the potential profit of your business.

By providing your procurement staff with the best purchasing education opportunities and tools available, you will equip them to do the following great things for your business:

1. Select the best vendors with which to develop ongoing relationships

2. More effectively manage supplier relations and transactions

3. Make the most advantageous purchasing decisions for your company

4. More consistently track and analyze critical purchasing data and determine its overall impact on the functioning of your enterprise.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Compare purchasing training options and choose the right one for your needs, logistics and budget

Purchasing training courses come in many varieties, so it shouldn't be difficult to find one that's appropriate to your company's needs. Purchasing courses of various types, including purchasing seminars and online purchasing training are offered by many educational organizations and entities.

I recommend: American Management Association (AMA) offers Purchasing and Supply Management seminars at various locations nationwide. The American Purchasing Society and Next Level Purchasing offer online purchasing training, with special member pricing from APA and a free skills report and free online mini-course from NLP. The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) also offers purchasing seminars, conferences and onsite training programs, as well as other information helpful to purchasing professionals.

Maximize your purchasing agent training program by providing the best purchasing tools available

To help make the most of your staff's purchasing training classes, be sure to equip your team with the most effective software available for doing their jobs.

I recommend: Capterra offers comprehensive descriptions of a variety of procurement software, offered by a number of different vendors, enabling you to compare available resources and help you capitalize on your investment in employee purchasing education.

As a follow-up to purchasing training courses, give your team usable resources to simplify tasks

Procurement management consulting and e-sourcing services offered online can be a real boon to your purchasing team members' effectiveness, as they put the procurement principles learned in their purchasing classes to work on a daily basis.

I recommend: DynaQuote provides online procurement services and e-sourcing that can help streamline your purchasing processes, maximizing your purchasing team members' time and allowing them to put their training in business purchasing to more effective use.

Keep your purchasing agents' skills sharp with ongoing training in business purchasing

Supplement your team's purchasing classes with ongoing opportunities through which they can gain even greater skill in their specialty through access to the most up-to-date procurement information, advice and technological help available.

I recommend: Global eProcure provides helpful, free information on maximizing technology for the purchasing professional, helping you make the most of your investment in purchasing courses.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Take as much time as you need to be sure that the purchasing training course you choose will be the one that will best serve your company's needs.