Punitha Carlin recently completed a public procurement course. “I thoroughly enjoyed learning,” Carlin, a consultant based in Bangalore, India, said. She was happy to receive the certificate too. She is one of more than 540 certified learners who took the world’s first Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) and blended learning programs for public procurement.
The course was launched in March 2014 and has seen more than 55,000 visitors. More than 4000 people have enrolled for the course. It is regularly accessed by users in 135 countries worldwide. The course has been shaped up as a scalable business model for using information communications technologies (ICTs) in public procurement capacity building.
Public procurement forms 15-20% of countries’ GDP worldwide and is an area which accounts for the largest chunk of government spending every year.
At a time when procurement is getting attention as a strategic tool to bring efficiency in public expenditure management and the specialization growing as one of the top ten highest paying professions in the South Asian region, the portal is instrumental in introducing and mobilizing certification in a previously less recognized field.
“With the launch of www.procurementlearning.org, procurement learning has become affordable and accessible from anywhere,” said Kalesh Kumar, World Bank Team Leader for the project.
The platform has two types of courses: general and professional. Both of these courses can be accessed from anywhere, and cater to different aspects of a procurement professional’s skill sets.
The Certificate in Public Procurement uses a MOOC methodology to enable global participants in understanding the rationale behind public procurement decisions and develop a good overview of the profession and its requirements.
The MOOC portal also offers unique advantages by leveraging partnerships with the Charter for Public Procurement Studies (CPPS) that includes leading public and private educational, training institutes and universities in India.
It’s especially beneficial for in-service staff from the government as it helps save the government’s added cost of training individuals. Moreover, the course can be expanded based on feedback, trends, and training needs in the field.