A member of the B.C. public service since 1990, David Trudel is Senior Procurement Governance Analyst for the Ministry of Finance’s Procurement Governance Office. A member of the second PCMP graduating class, in November 2007, Trudel advises across government on all aspects of procurement and related policies. We interviewed him in Victoria in late April 2008.
Ahead of the PCMP Curve
I was an enthusiastic early supporter of the PCMP. In fact, I was one of the ministry representatives on the Procurement Management Learning Advisory Committee, which laid the groundwork for the program.
Then I went through the development of the PCMP from a number of different perspectives, from being in a line ministry and then at the central agency, so I’ve seen it from both sides. And I think the courses themselves are excellent. They provide a depth of training and knowledge transfer that’s really good.
Meeting Needs, Filling Gaps
The PCMP really is a dynamic tool that will help us renew our workforce, in a much more timely and cost-effective way than sending people back to university. The program is the tool that, as an organization, will allow us to skill-up all of the people who could potentially be involved. It’s really heartening that we can avoid what could be a real crisis in human resources. The PCMP fills a great need, and the more training we have, the better.
Putting It to Work
My case study for the PCMP 350 course was about developing an online forum for all PCMP graduates. I was able to do that, using some of the tools I learned during my training and with support from NECI, and the forum is now operational.
Making a Difference
Now I’m focusing on developing the community of practice, including in-person meetings. Those are difficult for people who live at a distance, but with the B.C. government’s current green initiatives, we’ll start to see much more access to tools like video conferencing. We’re already thinking about evolving our community of practice and how we’re going to configure it, assuming that Alberta, Ontario and Atlantic Canada become participants in PCMP.
David Trudel, PCMP CERT.
B.C. Ministry of Finance
(250) 387-2338
