Weekly online
Join interactive online teaching, with guided reading, practical activities and assessment work around the live sessions. Your written course plan confirms the timetable, learning hours and masterclass arrangements for this module.
Professional learning · Project Controls & Management
Procurement Risk & Contract Management.
Make better buying decisions and keep the contract delivering.
A contract starts delivering value long before the signature, through the way needs, risks and supplier expectations are defined. This course develops a practical view of procurement across the project lifecycle, from clarifying requirements and comparing options to monitoring performance and managing change. It draws on the relevant OTHM unit, established procurement texts and current official public-procurement guidance. KBC’s proposed casework puts you in the position of a project professional who must work confidently with commercial specialists, challenge weak assumptions and keep an understandable record of decisions. The focus is stronger delivery through clearer commercial thinking and supplier relationships.
Weekly routeAgree your timetable
Live online2 hours a week
Module startsOctober · February · June
Learning structure1 module
The professional challenge
Make the next decision with more confidence.
A supplier offers the lowest headline price, but the proposal excludes installation, leaves acceptance unclear and depends on information your team has not prepared. You need to evaluate the complete delivery proposition, record the risks and establish a contract-management approach that makes responsibilities visible after the purchase is approved.
Who will benefit
For project managers, contract owners, procurement coordinators and operational managers who buy goods or services or oversee supplier delivery. It is particularly useful when you contribute technical requirements, evaluate proposals or manage performance, but need a stronger understanding of the commercial process and the questions to take to procurement and legal colleagues.
What you take back to work
Practical capability, built through learning.
- Define requirements and evaluate whole-life value.
- Compare supplier options using clear criteria and evidence.
- Identify procurement and contract risks with accountable responses.
- Design performance, change and escalation arrangements for delivery.
Inside the course
A connected learning journey.
The proposed KBC module runs over four months with 14 sessions: 1–2 requirements; 3–5 supplier evaluation; 6–8 contracts and rules; 9–11 risk and information; 12–14 performance, change and integrated review. These are KBC teaching blocks. Reading, preparation and any regulated assessment require additional study agreed for the selected route.
01Define the need and the buying approach
Reading connection: Lester chapter 34; Lysons/Farrington chapters 1–5.
Explore how scope, stakeholder needs and the procurement strategy shape the outcome. KBC’s proposed exercise begins with an urgent request to purchase a solution before the underlying requirement has been agreed. You will identify the questions that must be answered, the information needed from the market and the commercial dependencies that belong in the project plan.
Apply it at work: Write a procurement brief with requirements, assumptions and decision points.
02Evaluate suppliers and whole-life value
Reading connection: Lysons/Farrington chapters 8, 10–11; OTHM procurement principles.
Consider how quality, service, risk and ongoing costs affect the usefulness of a proposal. You will compare competing offers in a KBC case where each supplier presents information differently. The task is to make the evaluation understandable, identify missing evidence and explain how the recommendation serves the business need. You will also define sustainability requirements that can be assessed credibly.
Apply it at work: Produce an evaluation matrix and evidence-based recommendation.
03Understand the contract and governing rules
Reading connection: Lester chapter 34; current Cabinet Office guidance. No jurisdiction-specific legal advice promised.
Examine the relationship between obligations, acceptance, commercial risk and the rules applying to a particular purchase. KBC’s activity asks you to prepare questions for a contract review and identify issues requiring specialist advice. For public-procurement examples, current official guidance is used alongside the syllabus: the Procurement Act 2023 regime and its transitional arrangements must be distinguished from the older rules still relevant to some procurements.
Apply it at work: Prepare a contract-review checklist and a documented regulatory-context check.
04Manage procurement risk and information
Reading connection: OTHM risk and technology topics; Lysons/Farrington chapter 12.
Explore how supplier dependencies, approvals and electronic procurement processes can affect delivery. The case introduces a late approval and incomplete supplier data shortly before a planned mobilisation. You will separate causes, consequences and possible responses, identify owners and agree what should be monitored. The objective is risk management that actively informs buying and delivery decisions.
Apply it at work: Create a procurement risk register and an escalation plan.
05Keep performance and change under control
Reading connection: Lysons/Farrington chapters 14–15; Lester chapter 34.
Consider how a contract owner knows whether the agreed service is being delivered. KBC’s final simulation includes missed milestones, a disputed acceptance decision and a proposed change. You will review the evidence, prepare a supplier conversation and recommend the next management step within the agreed authority. The closing task records handover requirements and improvements for the next purchase.
Apply it at work: Build a contract-management plan with performance measures and change records.
Learn around your working life
Time to understand. Space to apply.
Online or in a city near you
Face-to-face delivery can be arranged in London, Maidstone, Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds and Liverpool. Your course offer confirms the venue and teaching dates.
A London masterclass to start your module
Meet your tutors and fellow professionals at an optional full-day London event. KBC covers the event, agreed transportation, refreshments and an open buffet dinner. Confirm arrangements with the team before booking travel.
Support between sessions
Return to class recordings and learning resources, bring questions to your tutor and use free one-to-one tutoring and coaching support. Your course plan sets out the guided reading and practice needed alongside live teaching.
Your route to recognition
Know what the assessment involves.
KBC’s proposed practical assessment is a procurement recommendation supported by supplier evaluation, risk and contract-management records. The corresponding OTHM unit specifies an approximately 4,000-word report addressing its assessment criteria, with centre assessment and OTHM external verification. This applies only to an explicitly registered formal unit route. The standalone course outline should not promise qualification credit. Current legislation is addressed through official sources, and learners practise recognising where a commercial or legal specialist must resolve the circumstances of an actual contract.
Your written offer records the award or course completion requirements, any examination fees included, and the relevant eligibility checks.
The professional knowledge behind the course
Explore the books and standards.
The learning themes above bring together the relevant guide, syllabus and workplace practice. KBC’s teaching sequence connects these ideas through discussion and application.
- OTHM Level 7 Diploma in Project Management — Procurement Risk and Contract Management ↗OTHM Qualifications · Specification, May 2025; qualification 603/5638/8
Unit R/618/0226; formal unit has 30 credits and 300 total study hours.
- Procurement and Supply Chain Management — Kenneth Lysons and Brian Farrington ↗Pearson · 10th edition, 20 March 2020; ISBN 9781292317915
Verified publisher contents cover sourcing, legal/contractual management, supplier performance, cost-in-use, project risk, negotiation and contract management.
- Transforming Public Procurement; transitional and saving arrangements ↗UK Cabinet Office · Current guidance checked 10 September 2026; transition guidance updated April 2026
The Procurement Act 2023 commenced 24 February 2025; earlier procurements remain subject to applicable transitional rules.
- Project Management, Planning and Control — Albert LesterButterworth-Heinemann / Elsevier · 7th edition, 2017; ISBN 9780081020203
Supplementary original book from KBC collection. Verified chapters 12 (work breakdown), 13 (estimating), 19–24 (networks), 27 (reporting), 30–34 (resources, costs, procurement), 37 (information), 44–45 (closure).
Your investment
Get a course offer that fits your route.
Request the standalone fee for your chosen format, including the teaching, reading materials, assessment and membership arrangements relevant to this course.
Exploring the full PCP apprenticeship?
£27,000 apprenticeship funding + £7,000 additional IPC support. The IPC package covers professional examinations, memberships, graduation, Benenden Health membership, London masterclasses and agreed transport.
These figures relate to the complete Project Controls Professional apprenticeship. Standalone course fees are separate. The team confirms eligibility, any employer contribution and the contents of your written offer.
Explore the PCP pathway →Your questions, answered.
Does the course cover public and private procurement?
The concepts apply across both; the relevant rules and case context must be identified separately.
Is the older public-procurement syllabus still enough?
It needs current official guidance. The course outline explicitly accounts for the new regime and transition.
Will I be qualified to give legal advice?
No. The course develops commercial judgement and collaboration with specialists.
What would this help you achieve?
Talk to KBC about your experience, your goals and the right learning route for you.