Programme

The mission of the Public Procurement Excellence Programme is to strengthen the professionalisation of public procurement and foster market-access for SMEs to centralised public procurement. Participants will be equipped with a comprehensive toolbox of best practice tools, templates and methods enabling their organisations to improve and ensure:
  • best value for money in all procurement activities of Centralised Procurement Bodies (CPBs),
  • transparent and compliant processes,
  • open, competitive and accessible markets,
  • equal opportunities for all businesses and in particular SMEs,
  • implementation of green and social procurement through effective policies and practices,
  • promoting innovation.

This unique programme is aligned with the recommendations of the European Commission on the professionalisation of public procurement. Participants will profit from longstanding market knowledge in the field of public procurement, complemented by state-of-the-art academic expertise.

Given the large share of public spending on procurement, it is essential that public procurement professionals have the necessary knowledge and skills to achieve value for money, ensure efficient procedures and maximise the impact of their procurement budgets. To realise these goals, PPE takes into consideration a broad range of subjects from EU law to economic perspectives, strategic procurement methods, technical know-how, and socio-political factors crucial for the professional design of calls for tenders.

Participants learn how to manage and integrate the core knowledge, skills, and methods of modern public procurement in their daily work routine and ultimately contribute to an innovative, sustainable, competitive, and compliant public procurement.

Modern tools and methods, in particular the underlying competence framework ProcurCompEU, will help to achieve this goal. The structure of the training programme covers procurement specific and soft skills and is based on the overall procurement cycle as well as the latest European Competency Framework for Public Procurement Professionals (ProcurCompEU):

ProcurCompEU– the European competency framework for public procurement professionals
Experienced public procurement staff with a minimum of three years of professional working experience in public procurement from the following organisations is welcome to apply:
  • Public procurement practitioners from newly or to be established Central Purchasing Bodies (CPBs) in the European Union and COSME participating countries
  • Staff with policy, regulatory or control functions in public procurement
  • Personnel working from local and regional authorities, in case CPBs are not yet (fully) established
  • Applications from longstanding CPBs from all European Member States are also welcome

A good command of English is a requirement.

The team will build on the experience gained from the first and second edition of the training programme, practical expertise from other programmes and EU projects, and WU Vienna’s extensive experience in running international executive education programmes.

The cooperation between WU Vienna and BBG offers expert teaching that combines theoretical understanding with practical experience of modern public procurement. Staff from various established CPBs from the BBG network will be involved as trainers in the programme, as well as policy makers and other relevant stakeholders to provide participants with a diverse learning experience.

In order to ensure a maximum training impact, we have developed a blended learning concept with both face-to-face training and online modules. For both training formats, the didactic concept is based on the understanding that teaching and learning is a process that involves both learner and teacher jointly in its success. Using a constructivist perspective, the concept involves the learner in all considerations, focuses on individual learning and puts the teacher in a new type of role.

The 2022 edition of the training programme is planned to be held both on-site in Vienna and online. The following structure is considered, but might be subject to adaptation due to the pandemic situation:
  • Block 1 (on-site): 2022, Calendar Week 39 & 40
  • Block 2 (online): 2022, Calendar Week 45 & 46
  • Block 2 (online): 2023, Calendar Week 4 & 5
  • Block 3 (on-site): 2023, Calendar Week 13
  • Participants will work on joint business projects, develop an individual training module for their organisations and complete an asynchronous online training module between the training blocks.
  • On-site blocks will take place in Vienna, Austria.
  • Online blocks will be held via Zoom.
  • The language of instruction is English.
Upon successful graduation of the PPE Programme, participants will receive a certificate from WU Executive Academy, incl. corresponding ECTS points, and will be awarded with the title of “Certified Public Procurement Expert”.

To graduate successfully, participants will be required to:

  • Demonstrate individual learning progress in the relevant competency areas
  • Satisfy the attendance requirements (minimum attendance rate 90%)
  • Actively participate in activities and workshops during the training modules
  • Carry out and present a business project (collaborative work)
  • Develop an individual training module for their organisations