Continuing Professional Development is important for everyone at Cordie. This week, we got to celebrate success with Julia Sverdlo, one of Cordie’s Apprenticeship Team Administrators as she completed her CIPS Level 3 Advanced Certificate in Procurement & Supply qualification. Here we explain a little more why this achievement means so much for Julia and the rest of us at Cordie.
Julia’s storY:
Having graduated from Ukraine’s Poltava National Technical Yuri Kondratyuk University in 2017, Julia first came to the UK in 2022 as part of the UK’s support programme for those affected by the Ukrainian conflict. She joined Cordie in 2024 as a Team Administrator within our Apprenticeships team and quickly settled in, valued by colleagues and respected by learners.
All Cordie staff are required to undertake Continuing Professional Development and, ideally, to embrace additional education that supports their role. For Julia, this meant learning more about procurement and supply chains, so that she could understand and support learners with their roles and responsibilities as they progress through some of our apprenticeship programmes.
With no prior education in the field of procurement, Julia commenced the CIPS Level 3 Advanced Certificate in Procurement & Supply joining one of our cohorts of learners and over the next 12 months proceeded to study the five necessary modules and pass her CIPS exams.
“Key learnings that stood out for me were: mastering ethical sourcing and procurement ethics, contract management strategies, building resilient supplier relationships and team dynamics.
This achievement makes me the first member of my family to earn an internationally-recognised qualification.
It’s a reminder that you are the only person who defines who you are, what you are capable of, and what you deserve — regardless of your starting point.”
The importance of CPD:
Continuing Professional Development (CPD) is essential for maintaining and enhancing skills, knowledge, and competence in the workplace, ensuring we all remain capable and confident as our work environment evolves around us. It directly improves employability, supports career progression, boosts confidence, and ensures safer, higher-quality service delivery, particularly in regulated fields (such as education delivery).
Here at Cordie we have a CPD Policy that all staff are required to adhere to as they join and work with our team. A minimum of five days every year are required on additional learning and development activities, and this is targeted and monitored for every individual. We will support our staff, often paying for their studies and providing them with the additional study resources and time required to complete their learning.
We do this because we want our people - like Julia - to grow, stay motivated and continue to better themselves as they go about their daily responsibilities supporting our customers.
Cordie is an educational service provider to procurement and commercial functions. Some of our staff are globally-recognised leading experts in their field, but we want all of our team to know, understand and love the difference that can be made with good professional procurement practice.
Celebration of success:
Everyone at Cordie is thrilled with Julia’s achievement and also to witness her growth in confidence and knowledge of procurement-related topics.
We celebrate the development and achievements of all our staff, and we hope this stands out and sets us apart when you study with us!
Get in touch to find out more about our dynamic procurement skills and CIPS education programmes. We look forward to hearing from you!