Certified Commercial Practice Professional (CCPP)

Course vision

To recognise practitioners who can set a commercial approach for a team, weigh competing risks and explain their decisions to a board in plain language.

Who should participate?

Contract managers, procurement leads, commercial directors and senior finance staff with at least five years of relevant experience. Holding the FCCP or a specialist certificate helps but is not required. You will need access to a real or anonymised contract portfolio to draw on in the case study.

Course description

The CCPP is taught in small cohorts of up to 16 people. Five live workshop days, spread over ten weeks, alternate with guided reading and peer review in groups of four. The written case study asks you to diagnose the commercial weaknesses of an organisation and propose a 12-month improvement plan. In the recorded interview two assessors test your reasoning and ask how you would respond as circumstances change.

Course outline

• Commercial strategy and how it links to the organisation's goals
• Category planning and make-or-buy decisions
• Negotiation planning for high-value contracts
• Portfolio-level supplier and contract risk
• Working capital, payment practice and late-payment exposure
• Governance: reporting, controls and the role of the board
• Leading change in a commercial team
• Ethics, conflicts of interest and speaking up

Course experts

The CCPP is led by Dr Amara Okafor and Rahul Mehta. Guest sessions come from Kwame Asante, a former commercial director in rail engineering, and Bethan Morgan, who runs internal audit for a group of further-education colleges.

Key benefits

You will leave with a tested plan you can use at work and the confidence to defend it. Passing the CCPP is the main route to Senior membership and lets you use the letters CCPP.