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Partnership approach to training raises professional standards
Fourteen members of the Sellafield Ltd commercial team have become the latest to successfully complete a professional training programme created by the company in association with the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (CIPS).
Robert Astall, head of supply chain management at Sellafield Ltd, initiated the course with CIPS and started the programme in 2007.
Robert explained: “I am very keen on the professional development of our employees. We wanted a way of providing this development in a way that would lead to the candidates being able to formally apply for chartered membership of the institute and use their day-jobs to learn in an applied way.
“Working with CIPS we developed a foundation course which would allow candidates to apply for practitioner membership and an advanced course which would allow candidates to apply for professional membership.
“The success of the course has meant that we now fifty percent of our frontline procurement people professionally qualified compared to the ten percent we had when we started the programme three years ago”.
Among the latest ‘class’ of successful candidates is Lena Askew who has successfully completed both elements of the training. She said: “I joined Sellafield Ltd in 2006, and because I was new to the department I decided to complete the practitioner course first to help gain an understanding of procurement tools and techniques within the business.
“Doing the practitioner course first gave me the confidence to progress to the advanced course where I broadened my knowledge and understanding of the different business and procurement tools required to help develop my career in procurement.”
Receiving her certificate from Sellafield Ltd’s commercial director, Keith Case, Vicky Slater said: “I started the course to gain a broader view of procurement and learn best practice techniques for procuring goods and services. I have had to sacrifice a couple of weekends to finish my assignments, but it was worth it.”
Candidate Matthew Griffiths believes that doing the course has already proved beneficial. He said: “I've already used some of the information, theories and techniques learned on the course, so it's been helpful. The behavioural techniques learned have given me a different view on how actions may be perceived when dealing with suppliers and contractors.”
