Procurement capability and training

Procurement capability

Transport Scotland employs a wide variety of professionals with specialisms ranging over a number of disciplines including engineering, environmental, law, accountancy and other technical disciplines. The skills of staff cover numerous competencies such as planning, project management, procurement, stakeholder engagement, budgeting, policy making and staff management. We are therefore well positioned to achieve the highest standards of innovation, professionalism and teamwork across all areas of the business.

The Scottish Government’s Procurement and Commercial Improvement Programme was most recently undertaken in 2019. This programme is designed to evaluate the performance of public sector organisations’ procurement activity and the assessment confirmed that our procurement capability was in the highest performance band, with a score of 92%.

Procurement training

Procurement training is key to ensuring that staff have the knowledge, skills and behaviours to achieve the desired outcomes.  It is essential that our capability and skills are fit for purpose in both the short and long term.  Transport Scotland fully supports continuous professional development for staff to ensure it is well positioned to achieve the highest standards of innovation, professionalism and teamwork across all areas of the business.

We operate a graduate recruitment and training programme as well as offering opportunities for modern apprenticeships. 

Our Procurement Training Strategy plays a key role in supporting our overall procurement aims to deliver value for money and sustainable procurement.  The Procurement Training Strategy is intended to identify the actions and resources needed to achieve this vision.  This results in an annual Procurement Training Programme which takes account of changes in legislation and any identified skills gaps.

An important aspect of the Procurement Training Strategy is the alignment of training and development opportunities with the Scottish Government’s Skills for Success and the Scottish Government’s Scotland’s National Procurement Competency Framework.

DPA is only granted to staff that have demonstrated the necessary skills and have undertaken appropriate training in procurement. In addition, those with DPA must complete SPPD’s Procurement Development Framework and include procurement training when preparing their Personal Leaning Plan to ensure that Transport Scotland retains a high level of procurement competence.