Christian Menendez is Acting Senior Category Manager at Peterborough City Council and has recently completed his CIPS Level 4 Diploma with excellent exam results! Christian talks to Nicky from APA about his experience on the course and his plans for the future.
Prior to your CIPS training, what was your previous highest level of education?
Prior to this, I did a BTEC National Diploma in Music Technology, but that’s going back at least 15 years and is a far cry from anything related to procurement!
How does studying for CIPS qualifications fit in with your day to day working and home life? Do you think you would have found the courses more difficult if you had gone down the self-study route?
It took a bit of adjusting at first – when you’ve been out of any kind of formal education or training for a while it can be tough to then find a way to carve out the time you need to study and take exams whilst balancing it against your personal and professional commitments.
That said, I did manage to find a balance that worked for me and it ultimately then becomes your ‘new normal’, so once you’re past the initial shock things do get easier.
I think the self-study route would have likely been tougher. You don’t get to take advantage of shared insights and differing perspectives from classmates if you go it alone, and having a tutor you can talk things through with, or who can recontextualise and reframe things for you is definitely useful.
Now that you have completed the Level 4 Diploma, what specific areas of procurement can say you definitely know more about now?
I’ve worked in procurement for many years now so I wouldn’t say there was anything in the level 4 syllabus that I wasn’t already familiar with in some capacity, but what I did find interesting was learning about the more formal structures and models that underpin some common practices, and the way it then expanded upon those models in ways I might not have previously considered. Commercial Negotiation would be a good example of this – I’ve led negotiations during my career and found much of what was being discussed in the module to be familiar to me, having applied it previously, but to have it set out in a more clearly-defined structure and then elaborated upon was particularly insightful, as I could then reflect on my previous experiences and consider how I might have done things differently. I’m confident that I’ll find success in applying what I’ve learnt here in the future.
How has your CIPS training benefitted your organisation would you say?
The public sector operates somewhat differently to the private sector, which leads some people to question the value of CIPS and its application to the public sector specifically. Personally, I found that much of the subject matter is still relevant to the public sector, and the syllabus does try to highlight areas where application in the public sector might differ from that of the private sector. I’m personally looking at how the elements of best-practice highlighted within the syllabus can be applied to our internal processes, targeting areas like governance, due diligence and contract management. This is what I’ve found to be one of the biggest benefits of my studies – being able to actively compare internal policies and processes to those outlined in the various modules and seeking to understand where improvements could be made.
How did you find the whole experience training with APA as a provider? Would you recommend us to others looking to start their CIPS qualifications?
I found APA to be very supportive. Steve and Amanda were both very knowledgeable and made the classes engaging, whilst signposting to additional resources to try and support my studies.
I had a rather major life event take place during the course which meant I needed to defer a couple of exams, but APA were happy to facilitate this and made sure I got recordings of the classes and all associated studying materials, so I was able to still keep up in my own time and comfortably prepare for the rescheduled exams. I’d happily recommend them to anyone thinking about starting their CIPS qualification.
What does the future hold for you now that you have the CIPS Level 4 Diploma?
I’m planning to press on and keep studying until I achieve MCIPS, and looking to try and apply what I’m learning in my current workplace in the meantime. It’s a time of change and transformation in local government currently, with the somewhat recent change in procurement regulations, and the Local Government Reorganisation happening in the not-too-distant future, so I’m hoping to use the new knowledge and skills I’m gaining to support the business in navigating some of the challenges we’re facing.