Courses in public procurement provide a foundation for understanding the practices and ethics involved with the procurement process. It's important that public procurement enhance the trust the people have in their government. Therefore, courses provide groundwork in objectivity, commitment, responsibility, and ethical conduct that will help ensure a procurement professional understands, and makes, fiscally wise and beneficial decisions.
Courses in public procurement are designed to give students an understanding of the laws and ethics involved in the process, as well as strategies for carrying it out. For example, the Public Procurement Research Center of Florida Atlantic University offers a series of courses for undergraduate and graduate students alike. For undergraduate students, the courses range from Administrative Process and Ethics of Public Sector Procurement to Public Sector Contract Planning and Analysis. On the graduate side, courses like Public Sector Procurement Law and Ethics are available. These courses are intended to help build and advance careers in the public sector.
Don't view courses about public procurement in an insular way. It's an international issue, and even the United Nations provides courses within a leveled program -- level one through level four -- to help its member nations learn about the system so they can make wise decisions. The United Nations' courses are structured to teach students public procurement rules, policies, regulations and procedures on an international level. Because the countries and their governments involved with the United Nations are diverse, these courses are designed to touch upon universal issues in procurement, such as successful negotiation techniques and handing supply chains in humanitarian efforts.
Reasons to take courses in public procurement range from career ambitions to convenience and location. Some universities offer their courses online to students. But the courses offered by the United Nations are much more intensive, including lectures and interactive exercises with other students, and are therefore offered in-class in select cities around the world, including Bangkok, Dubai, Rome, Vienna and New York.