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Current Body of Knowledge and Competency (BoK-C) for the CPPO and CPPB   Click here for details

UPPCC News & Announcement Archive

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October 2009 Administrative Report: UPPCC Releases Key Data

January 21, 2010 -The Certified Public Purchasing Officer (CPPO) and Certified Professional Public Buyer (CPPB) are globally recognized credentials offered exclusively by the Universal Public Purchasing Certification Council (UPPCC). The certification programs systematically raise the level of professionalism within the public procurement profession by offering recognition to those individuals who meet an established standard of competency for public procurement demonstrated through a rigorous application process and superior examination performance.

In November, the UPPCC announced that 207 individuals successfully completed the October 2009 certification exams, including 142 who earned the CPPB certification and 65 who earned the CPPO. To date, 8,901 CPPB and 1,813 CPPO certifications have been awarded by the UPPCC.

Obtaining either UPPCC certification requires the candidate to demonstrate, through an application process, that they meet specific requisites, which includes education, procurement related coursework/training and public purchasing employment experience. A comprehensive written examination (specific to each certification) is required to confirm the candidate's mastery of a variety of public procurement concepts found in the UPPCC Body of Knowledge.

Today, the UPPCC released key performance data from the October 2009 examinations:

Overall Scoring/Passing Rates
The UPPCC reports that 76% of the 86 total candidates who tested for the CPPO passed while 60% of the 238 candidates who tested for the CPPB passed. Mean passing scores for CPPO candidates were 43 points higher than for CPPB.

Testing Time
The total testing time permitted for both examinations is 3.5 hours. This includes time for candidates to comment on individual test questions. This equates to a total of 210 minutes for 175 questions or on average 1 minute and 23 seconds for each test question.

The UPPCC reported that for CPPO, the average completion time was 2.79 hours with a range from 3.5 hours maximum to 1.25 hours minimum. For the CPPB, the average completion time was 2.76 hours with a range from 3.5 hours maximum to 1.20 hours minimum.

Exam Content & Candidate Preparation 
Content for both the CPPO and CPPB examinations are dictated by the 2008 UPPCC Body of Knowledge (BOK). A total of 10 domain areas comprise the BOK and are as follows:

  1. Administration Aspects of Purchasing

  2. Procurement Requests

  3. Solicitation and Evaluation of Bids/Proposals

  4. Supplier Analysis

  5. Negotiation Process

  6. Contract Award and Administration

  7. External/Internal Relationships

  8. Materiels Management

  9. Human Resources/Personnel

  10. Forecasting and Strategies

The UPPCC reports that for the CPPO, candidates performed the best in Domain 8: Materiels Management and performed the poorest in Domain 3: Solicitation and Evaluation of Bids/Proposals and Domain 5: Negotiation Process.  Conversely for CPPB candidates, the strongest performance area was Domain 9: Human Resources/Personnel while performing the poorest in Domain 2: Procurement Requests (see Table 1).

UPPCC reports that most candidates indicated, via a post examination survey, spending between one and three months preparing for their respective examinations (see Table 2).

The organization also reports that in reviewing candidates as a whole, those who indicated spending between three and six months preparing experienced the highest rates of passing compared to other timeframes of preparation or no preparation at all; however, in evaluating CPPO candidate performance, preparation times between one and three months, as indicated by high passing rates, appeared to be the optimal timeframe (see Graph 1).

Passing Rates and Public Entity Types
UPPCC reports that when comparing passing rates for both examinations with various entity types; K-12 experienced the highest rates at 82% followed by Higher Education at 78% (see Graph 2).

Testing for both credentials is now offered via a network of nearly 400 professional testing centers twice annually in May and October. The UPPCC is currently accepting applications for the May 3-8, 2010 testing window through February 1 (through February 15th with late fee).

The Universal Public Purchasing Certification Council (UPPCC) is an independent entity formed to govern and administer the Certified Public Purchasing Officer (CPPO) and Certified Professional Public Buyer (CPPB) certification programs. The CPPO and CPPB programs are highly regarded and respected among procurement professionals and employers involved in the public sector. To date, the UPPCC has certified well over 10,000 professionals primarily within the US and Canada as well as in other nations around the globe.

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