Partnerships vital to successful effort

This is what success looks like: Some 14,000 state employees completed more than 36,700 required contract and procurement training courses between January 2015 and October 2015.

Thank you for your part in supporting and participating in this monumental effort.

The success of this new training program goes far beyond just the numbers. Numerous parties contributed to this accomplishment for the State of Washington. The training courses were developed by the Department of Enterprise Services in partnership with customer agencies, institutions of higher learning, labor unions, associations for the blind and visually impaired, and many others. We'd especially like to acknowledge members of the statewide Training Advisory Group for their contributions to this effort.

To gain valuable feedback to help shape the training, DES worked in close collaboration with our partners using Lean continuous improvement methods and tools to define value and usability as training courses were developed. The resulting eLearning courses are self-paced, free and available online.

Partners in this effort also helped identify and overcome a number of obstacles to complete the training. This included intermittent technical issues with the state's learning management system (LMS) due to a high volume of users. We extended the training deadline by two weeks to accommodate more than 2,000 learners who took more than 5,800 courses during the extension.

Moving forward

Moving forward, Enterprise Services will use Lean to continue to add value to this training, produce guidance and reference guides, and develop new eLearning modules. Enterprise Services will be surveying learners again soon, and we encourage everyone to let us know what will be most helpful for finding the information you need, when you need it.

We also need everyone's help in working together to sustain this accomplishment. As people join state agencies or transfer to new jobs within the state, they will need the training appropriate to their new jobs. There is 90-day window to take the training.

Training is important because it helps employees become better stewards with state dollars and reduces risk, and it also helps improve consistency in state contracting and procurement across the state. The training is required by state procurement reform law.

About the courses

Employees involved in contracting and procurement each took at least two of the five courses available. Employees learned about new procurement law (RCW39.26) including:

• Roles and responsibilities,
• Risk and risk mitigation,
• Delegated authority,
• Ethics,
• Building relationships,
• Critical thinking,
• Other information specific to procurement and contracting based on their job,
• Who to contact for help.

All courses contain knowledge checks, assessments, resource materials, workbooks resource guides. Each learner also gains a certificate of completion.

Contact

For further information, or you have any questions, please contact Contracts and Procurement Training Manager Contract and Procurement Training Team.

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