Guidance

Commercial and procurement training

How civil servants and other public service professionals can access commercial and procurement skills training.

This guidance was withdrawn on

The content on this page is no longer up to date. The Government Commercial Function (GCF) are currently revising it, and will update it shortly.

Developing commercial capability is a government priority set out in the civil service capabilities plan. It was last updated in June 2014.

The Commercial Professional Skills and Competency Framework (PDF, 458 KB, 18 pages) sets out the skills, behaviours and competencies that civil service procurement professionals should demonstrate. This is underpinned by the Professional Commercial Curriculum (PDF, 274 KB, 2 pages).

Commercial training for civil servants

Commercial training can help you deal with suppliers confidently and understand the issues that motivate them.

Civil Service Learning provides courses and resources for developing skills, including:

  • commercial master classes
  • effective commercial planning and contracting
  • achieving supplier engagement (for middle managers)
  • developing commercial awareness

See the Commercial Core Skills recommended by government and Log in to Civil Service Learning to book a course.

From 1st April 2016, responsibility for the NHS Task Force Training transferred from Crown Commercial Services to the Department of Health and will be delivered by the National Commercial Procurement Skills Development (PSD) Network.

The development programme, which will be re-launched as NHS Procurement Skills Training, will include:

  • Basic Purchasing
  • Contract Management
  • Basic Contract Law
  • EU Procurement
  • Effective Negotiation
  • Specification Writing
  • Supplier Management
  • Supply Chain & Materials Management

Over the next six months, the material for these courses will be refreshed and a new programme will be available from Autumn 2016. Details of future courses will be published on the www.skillsdevelopmentnetwork.com website In the meantime, if you would like to be included on a waiting list for any future training courses, please email PSDNetwork@whh.nhs.uk detailing the course(s) you are interested in.

Commissioning Academy

This specialist development programme is for senior public sector commissioners. It uses practical, peer-led learning, covering key commissioning issues such as outcome-based commissioning and market engagement development as tools for transforming public services.

Published 5 December 2014
Last updated 16 June 2016 + show all updates
  1. Changed task force information.

  2. Updated information about Task Force Training.

  3. Training information added.

  4. Updated Commercial Core skills PDF

  5. updated training course dates

  6. commercial skills curriculum and skills framework updated

  7. Changed location for training course on 28 May to London

  8. Updated course dates

  9. First published.