CIPS - Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply

[georgefreeman]

A search returned a couple of results, but nothing that answered my questions specifically regarding CIPS.

My current employee has agreed to fund my CIPS qualification (if I pass!) and I am looking for a bit of advice if anyone has completed or is currently completing this qualification.

I am fairly young (24), dont't have kids, so really have no big time commitments and have been working within a purchasing environment with my current and previous employer for around 3 years. I work full time and plan on completing the CIPS qualification through self study.

My questions are;

How did you study? and what resources did you use? E learning or did you purchase the relevant books?

If you studied whilst working full time, how long did it take you to complete the qualification?

Did you then move on to MCIPs?

i have various other questions should anyone be kind enough to allow me to ask them.

I should also state, that I am looking at starting at Level 4.

[georgefreeman]

Bertrum said:

To answer your questions.

For Level 4 you simply need to learn the book, the books can be purchased from CIP's if you become a member you will get a discount plus the Supply Chain Magazine which is worth having.

We have the buyers here (NHS) doing level 4 at the moment, due to the type of work they do on a day to day basis they are struggling to relate to the book, we have found giving them small projects aimed at the book they are studying really helps them out. So ask your manager for similar.

If you can absorb a book and recall on demand you will pass the exam easily assuming you can relate. Any courses or learning on top I found to be a waste of money.

You can take 3 exams at once if you wish, but i would advise 2 at once.

Lots of practice/old test papers are available so do a few of those.

If you do 2 exams a sitting those happen every 3 months you should be able to do level 4 in a year.

Level 5 and 6 take a bit longer. Usually you are looking at 5 years ish to be MCIPS. But you really need a job to suit otherwise the projects in the higher levels are impossible.

Thank you for the feedback, answered my questions. My main concern was would I be at a disadvantage of just learning from the book rather than having some tutoring.