Apprentice Purchasing Assistant

Job Title

Do you have strong administrative and organisational skills and an interest in finance? Do you want to be a part of an organisation that makes a difference to the lives of Autistic young people whilst gaining a qualification and hands on experience in a purchasing environment?

What you'll do at work

• Placing and confirming purchase orders in line with purchasing processes and timelines
• Monitoring order confirmations, delivery schedules and updates
• Receipting in goods onto the system accurately
• Maintaining accurate purchasing data and ensuring systems are kept up to date
• Managing the purchasing inbox and responding to supplier and internal queries in a timely manner
• Acting as a key point of contact for supplier communication, including order updates and issue resolution
• Identifying and resolving order discrepancies, delays or supplier issues, escalating where necessary
• Providing resources on site from a centralised store including stationery, uniform and hygiene supply requests
• Ensure compliance with internal purchasing policies and controls

Where you'll work

Priors Court School
Priors Court
Hermitage
THATCHAM
RG18 9NU

Training

Training provider
FAREPORT TRAINING ORGANISATION LIMITED

Training course
Procurement and supply assistant (level 3)

Understanding apprenticeship levels (opens in new tab)

What you'll learn

Course contents

• Monitor and order products, stock, equipment and services at appropriate times using the appropriate procurement method.
• Communicate to procurement's internal stakeholders, suppliers and other stakeholders in order to develop effective relationships and networks
• Create, maintain and amend purchase order and contract records.
• Interpret, evaluate and compare procurement information such as historical spend and usage using databases and spreadsheets.
• Present findings and data in all formats e.g. mathematically, written and oral.
• Determine value for money (VFM) and added value through the use of Total Cost of Ownership during the evaluation process, and apply the most economically advantageous tender (MEAT) criteria to the evaluation of quotes and tenders to support the recommendation at award. This may include the inclusion of green, low carbon, sustainability, and ethical criteria.
• Utilise relevant Procurement computer systems or internal databases.
• Select the supplier of the most appropriate products and services for purchases within their remit and place purchase order.
• Undertake appraisal of adhoc and low spend suppliers including setting them up on the purchasing system.
• Effectively research and analyse demand, spend, trends, potential suppliers and industries utilising qualitative and quantitative methods.
• Develop specifications of requirements and requests for quotes/tenders in line with organisational requirements.
• Apply considerations of responsible procurement in evaluating potential suppliers, quotes and tenders.
• Investigate and resolve purchase order, delivery and invoice queries.
• Own low risk value projects such as supply contracts for stationery, personal protective equipment (PPE) or other consumables, and contribute to higher risk activities such as contracts for building services or machinery, and track, log, expedite and review outstanding orders and stock availability where applicable.
• Maintain knowledge on all open orders and their status' and provide assistance to all purchasing staff e.g. expediting and feeding information back to the relevant stakeholders.
• Able to consider the impact of the decision making process when interacting with the supply chain.
• Able to support the contract negotiations and mini competitions with suppliers.