We often get asked about the duplications of learning content across study modules and different qualification levels on the CIPS syllabus. The same content and theories regularly reappear again and again throughout the syllabus and it is unclear what new material (if any) the Institute would like you to learn.
Why is this? Let’s take some simple examples…
Stakeholder management - it recurs again and again, and seems to be a complete set of duplication from Level 3 all the way through to Level 6. Of course, this isn’t quite the case. We all know the importance of stakeholder engagement within procurement, but this just doesn’t seem to be reflected with continuous references to Mendelow’s power/interest matrix.
Competitive forces - it turns up like a bad penny at every qualification level from 4 through to 6 and arguably appears in 6 out of the 8 modules at Level 4. We are sure this degree of duplication isn’t completely necessary, but the syllabus does not seem to ask for anything different each time and so this is why study centres teach the same old stuff.
Lean supply - gets introduced at Level 4 but hardly added to when repeated at Levels 5 and 6. Again, the intention is to build learning progressively however the syllabus does not really achieve this and so it feels for many students to be just a repeat.
There are plenty more examples to add to this (Kraljic, supply chain management, partnerships, the relationship continuum, the triple bottom line, etc) - and as an aside, this is why we first published The Procurement Models Handbook as a shortcut learning guide to help learners navigate the main models in your CIPS exams. You can find out more here:
Our surmise on the above duplications is one of “human error” when CIPS drafted the syllabus. It is completely the right thing to repeat a mention of key topics and important theoretical constructs. As you progress through the qualification levels, it is natural to review and build on learning from previous levels. the learning should be expanded on and looked at in greater complexity. Similarly, it is also appropriate to repeat content across individual study modules so that these theories can be studied in different contexts - again this is good.
However, unfortunately the wording of the syllabus fails to offer these important distinctions and so it is easy to feel like you are simply regurgitating and duplicating the same old content.
Here at Cordie we try to present the learning content differently and progressively through both the study modules and the levels. This should result in deeper understanding of the theories and a greater application to procurement practice - and it should enable better answers to exam questions.
Duplication? What duplication!?