Login help - Forgotten your password?
The Chartered Institute of Purchasing & Supply

Personal Development Plan (PDP)

The identification of a PDP is through a specially designed questionnaire. The questionnaire, with supporting evidence, enables a profile to be developed of your
knowledge, experience and responsibility across the core areas of purchasing and supply chain management.

PDP candidates will be benchmarked against that of a ‘typical senior manager’ (with a minimum of 5 years experience in a senior management role) that has
been identified by the CIPS Professional Practice Team.

Any area where your profile does not meet the benchmark will constitute a development need and a plan may be set. The status of membership will be regraded to Associate PDP to begin with.

Where a profile does meet the required benchmark and the complete portfolio satisfies the PDP assessment panel, the applicant may be offered MCIPS directly without the need for further study. Full membership of the Institute enables you to use the designatory post-nominal letters MCIPS, and also enjoy the full range of membership benefits that we offer.

Download the full brochure here.

What is PDP?

  1. An alternative route to MCIPS which is designed for more senior members of the profession who have held that capacity for at least 5 years
  2. Suitable for candidates that match the criteria where their career stage suggests they would not be able to study
  3. A flexible route which can incorporate a number of study options and accumulated knowledge
  4. A recognition of tacit knowledge and the need to keep their knowledge, expertise and support
  5. A strong advocacy tool for CIPS
  6. A rigorous and robust process
  7. A recognised alignment with other academic routes

What it is NOT

  1. The easy route to full membership (MCIPS)
  2. An alternative for taking exams
  3. A means of acquiring MCIPS because of who you are, who you know or who you work for
  4. Suitable for anyone or everyone
  5. An “old boys club”
  6. A revenue generation scheme for CIPS
  7. Membership growth scheme for CIPS
  8. A way to get direct entry to MCIPS

You can view this image larger in the full PDP brochure on page 4.