THE QUALIFICATION PROGRAMME’S LEARNING PATH

The academic programme is a full time, advanced, postgraduate Master Programme with classroom lectures running from the end of February to July in Rome, Italy, followed by distance-learning and a mandatory professional traineeship in a company or institution, which can be in Italy, in the student’s home country or elsewhere. The programme is characterised by its interdisciplinary content and it is meant to attract purchasers with relevant experience in procurement as well as students interested in preparing for a career in procurement. Classes are all taught in English, therefore language proficiency is required to successfully follow the courses and to actively participate in all the learning activities.

MODULAR TRAINING

The programme runs each year from March to February with distance learning activities, classroom lectures, a mandatory professional internship and the preparation of the final dissertation. Each module has a duration of 30 hours. The modules are based on a traditional learning approach and are followed by graded exams. Classroom lectures requires fulltime attendance. Failure to attend will motivate outright suspension from the Programme.

MODULE LIST:

• Negotiation and Team Building
• Legal Background
• Economics of Procurement
• Competition and Procurement
• Planning and Management of Procurement Operations
• Digital Procurement
• Green Procurement
• IFI's Procurement Procedures
• Contract Complaints and Disputes
• Integrity and Anticorruption in Public Procurement
• Social vs Innovative Procurement
• Law and Economics of Public and Private Partnership
• Strategic Procurement and Quality Management

For more details about the Modular Training please look at the relevant academic year Course List.

EXAMS

During the classroom lectures period in Rome, exams will be organised in 2 sessions: one at the end of the Module 6 and one at the end of the last module. Students will have a one-week break for exams preparation before each exams session.

DISTANCE LEARNING

• Before the starting of the program students will have access to a detailed reference list reviewing the fundamental concepts on the core subjects of the course which include law, economics and procurement management.

• At the end of the in-class period students go back to their home countries and are required to participate in the final distance learning module. This is a 30 hours module on Procurement in Fragile Contexts delivered on Zoom in Autumn. The usual schedule is one 6-hour-lecture per week.

TRAINEESHIP PERIOD

After the in-class period, students will be required to be involved in a traineeship period within their own or another organisation. The traineeship period must be at least of 500 hours and it usually takes place during the August – January period (depending on the starting date). The traineeship period will be evaluated by a tutor that belongs to the same organisation.

FINAL DISSERTATION

In order to get the master’s degree students will be required to submit a dissertation, which will be part of their final evaluation. The dissertation should be a case study concerning procurement issues related to their own organisations, to a specific country or to a public procurement challenge. In drafting their paper students should demonstrate an understanding of the topic and the use of appropriate methodologies. The dissertation will be submitted at the beginning of January and will be defended at the end of February. Each student will work under the supervision of an advisor chosen among the lecturers of the program.

Details on deadlines and other relevant issues regarding all the activities that take place after the in-class period (e-learning module, traineeship period and dissertation) will be clearly given to the students at the beginning of July before they go back home.

WE LOOK FORWARD TO WELCOMING YOU TO IMPPM