Learn how to help your employer save money
Purchasing is a highly respected profession with high potential for advancement. Government purchasing professionals are responsible for obtaining materials, equipment and services at the best overall value for their employer. To do so effectively, they must perform many crucial steps. These can include developing procurement strategies, writing specifications, reviewing supplier proposals, selecting suppliers, negotiating contracts, placing orders, and evaluating vendor performance.
Purchasing is an online, self-study training course developed by the University of Georgia. The course exposes you to basic concepts and terminology for understanding purchasing in a governmental environment.
You will learn:
- Purchasing basics including qualifications of purchasing staff and the various roles of Purchasing
- How laws and policies affect the purchasing process
- Alternatives to organizing the purchasing function
- Step-by-step Purchasing process
- Methods for obtaining competitively priced goods and services for your government
- How the purchasing and accounts payable processes work together
- Documentation necessary for an effective purchasing function
- Alternative purchasing methods
- Why purchasing ethics are important in a government
Enroll anytime. Study anywhere.
You can complete the course at your own pace, on your own schedule. As you progress through each of the lessons, you will be challenged with self-test questions and interactive exercises. Online consultations with a financial professional can be scheduled on request.
About the Purchasing course:
- Self-paced, self-study, online course; accessible anywhere with an Internet connection
- Interactive media to enhance your learning experience
- A dynamic, 10-lesson purchasing course with a detailed curriculum written by an outstanding purchasing professional (see course learning objectives)
- A capstone Case Study
- A Glossary
- 10 lessons
81023
Enroll at any time
- Complete the courses required online quizzes and exercises within 30 days of receiving the course URL, username and password information.
- To complete this course, you will read the lessons and complete each lesson's exercises and quizzes. At the conclusion of the final lesson, you successfully complete the capstone case study and an online final examination with a score of 70% or better.
- For more details about the course, please click on the downloadable files on right titled, How Does Purchasing Work? and Frequently Asked Questions.
$179 – Residents of Georgia
$209 – Non-residents of Georgia
$50 – One-Month Extension (Only one extension is granted per participant.)
Cancellation/Refund Policy:
The Georgia Center will gladly issue full refunds for cancellations received in writing prior to the release of course access information. You may cancel your enrollment at any time during the course and receive a refund less a $50 administrative fee, provided that you have not accessed the online course material at all. During the first 10 days of your course, if you have not completed any course work, you may opt for a one-time transfer of your enrollment to another student for a fee of $50; the new student (i.e., substitute) would have up to thirty (30) days from the transfer date to complete the course. A course may be transferred only once for a fee of $50 (US). Written requests should be sent to student [at] georgiacenter [dot] uga [dot] edu
- Local government finance professionals and paraprofessionals who want to enhance their career skills and professional development opportunities. (Georgia residents can use course credits for the Georgia Local Finance Officer Certification Program.)
- Accounting professionals who want to earn continuing professional education required for all CPAs.
- Governmental professionals with previous private sector experience who want to gain governmental purchasing knowledge.
- The University of Georgia will award 1.2 Continuing Education Units (CEUs) or 12 Continuing Professional Education units (CPEs) upon successful completion of Purchasing.
- University of Georgia CEU transcripts are available at any time upon written request.
There are no prerequisites for enrolling in the Purchasing course.
Textbooks are not required to complete this course. Everything you need is built into the online course.
