Purchasing and Procurement
Professionals source goods and services for organizations, negotiating contracts and ensuring cost-effective purchasing. They address challenges like supply chain disruptions, budget constraints, and vendor reliability. Work typically takes place in offices, but can involve supplier site visits and logistics coordination.
Common Job Titles: Buyer Procurement Specialist Purchasing Agent Purchasing Manager Sourcing Specialist
Related Academic Programs
Looking for a business degree with the flexibility to accommodate your wide-ranging interests? You found it. The B.A. in Economics from Penn State Behrend examines economics relationships from the perspectives of both business and public policy. That means you’ll take courses in business and also in arts, humanities, natural sciences, and social and behavioral sciences.
The decision-making skills that Economics majors learn are needed across all sectors and segments of our economy, so you’ll find employment opportunities in government, business, manufacturing, finance, banking, labor organizations, and academia.
The Certificate in Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) with Oracle will instruct you in Oracle Enterprise Resource Planning software, an integrated multi-module application software that supports business processes. Oracle is one of the top ERP vendors and the skills gained by learning this software will allow you to become more valuable in the current marketplace. Oracle certification is valuable to hiring managers who want to distinguish among candidates for critical IT positions.
This program enables students to become proficient in Oracle Supply Chain and prepares them for the Oracle Supply Chain Certified Professional Consultant exams. Students who complete this certification will have the ability to implement and support eBusiness Supply Chain applications.
SAP is the world’s largest enterprise application software company, with more than 170,000 customers in more than 120 countries. The certificate program in Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) with SAP helps set our graduates apart from other business and management information systems graduates when gaining successful employment. Based on a Central Michigan University study, the average starting salary of SAP graduates was $5,250 greater than non-SAP graduates.
The goal of this program is to use SAP technology as a tool to help teach business concepts. Instead of studying “cold” textbook exercises at the end of a given textbook chapter, students directly interact with a real business, executing real functions and transactions in a life-like business-to-business simulation.
Penn State Behrend offers the innovative interdisciplinary-based Entrepreneurship and Innovation (ENTI) minor to students in any major.
The minor equips students to develop an entrepreneurial mindset; think critically and “outside the box” to sense opportunities; develop value propositions; and create sustainable value in fast-paced socio-technological environments. The minor at Penn State Behrend currently offers the New Ventures Cluster, although additional clusters will be made available.
How does the environment affect humans—and how do we affect our environment? With Penn State Behrend’s B.S. in Environmental Science, you’ll apply interdisciplinary knowledge to research those questions and prepare to join an in-demand field.
The Finance minor offers students an introduction to principles of finance and its major areas: financial management, investments, and financial markets. Accounting and Economics majors, in particular, would benefit from the additional exposure to finance.
In our increasingly interdependent world, events happening halfway around the globe can affect our communities here at home. That means decision-makers with global knowledge are in demand to conduct business that can cross borders.
With the B.S. in International Business from Penn State Behrend, you’ll develop a broad intercultural competence to go along with your business knowledge, positioning you to flourish no matter where your business happens to be.
A marketing minor offers a general marketing background to give students an understanding of core marketing principles, including marketing research and consumer behavior issues. In addition, students must take upper-level courses (at least 6 credits) in MKTG to get a more comprehensive understanding of marketing.
Take your career to the next level with an MBA from Penn State Behrend.
Our MBA program draws students from a wide range of fields, including management, banking, insurance, engineering, nursing, the sciences, and the liberal arts. Whether you’re looking to change careers, get ahead at your current job, or be more attractive to prospective employers, you can get ahead with our MBA.
Effective projects don’t just happen; they are coordinated by effective project managers. The ability to bring in large, multifunctional projects on time and on budget requires a unique set of skills in leadership, resource planning, and management. This 30-credit graduate program helps working professionals to develop the tools needed to carry out these complex organizational activities.
Mathematics is one of the oldest and most basic sciences, the foundation on which many other disciplines rely. Mathematical knowledge increases problem-solving skills in many fields.
The Operations and Supply Chain Management minor is designed primarily for students enrolled in non-business majors, especially those in engineering and engineering technology and in science, who wish to augment their majors with further studies in operations. The objective of the minor is to acquaint these students with the issues and methods associated with managing operations within manufacturing or service industries. Relevant studies include principles of management, operations management, logistics systems, procurement, planning and control, enterprise resource planning (ERP), and project management.
Every organization needs a strong leader—maybe that leader is you. With the graduate certificate in Organizational Leadership from Penn State Behrend, you can build a foundation in the essential skills needed to navigate challenges, adapt to change, and lead a team to success.
In this 12-credit program, you’ll study the fundamentals of management theory, learning to make effective decisions and improve your critical thinking skills. You’ll also develop technical skills to analyze problems through hands-on coursework and real-world case studies.
If you’re passionate about using data to solve problems, then you might benefit from adding a certificate in Project and Supply Chain Analytics to your degree. This 12-credit certificate program takes an interdisciplinary approach, incorporating project management, supply chain management, and data analytics to build your skills in managing the flow of goods, services, and information.
The certificate program is designed to help you learn to apply analytical methods to find solutions and insights needed for key decision making within an organization. The certificate provides a foundation that can be used to boost your portfolio in a number of fields, including management, data analytics, or business intelligence, or to help prepare you for further graduate studies.
The Project and Supply Chain Management minor is designed to introduce students within the School of Business to advanced topics in supply chain and project management. The minor can provide options and opportunities beyond those offered by a major program of study.
Well over half of all activities in modern corporations are project-based—from developing the smallest products to constructing skyscrapers. On top of that, globalization is creating a growing need for professionals who can effectively manage complex supply chains as well as complicated projects.
That’s where Penn State Behrend’s B.S. in Project and Supply Chain Management comes in. You’ll learn how to plan, manage, and deliver projects while navigating the complex supply chains that can make or break an organization’s success.
The online Graduate Certificate in Project Management is an interdisciplinary, 12-credit program that uses problem-based learning to provide a strong foundation in project management theory and practice. The program is AACSB accredited, so your certificate will be a well-respected credential.
The Intercollege Minor in Sustainability Leadership allows students in any major to incorporate sustainability as a significant theme in their undergraduate degree program. Through a combination of coursework and immersive experiences in sustainability, students develop the knowledge, skills, and attitudes required to become sustainability leaders in their respective fields.
This minor is designed to accommodate undergraduates enrolled in engineering and engineering technology and in science who wish to augment their majors with further studies in industrial or technical sales. This minor is designed for non-business majors. The objective of the minor is to acquaint the technical students of these majors with the issues and methods associated with industrial or technical sales. Relevant studies include principles of management, operations management, supply chain management, marketing, logistics systems, procurement, personal selling or business-to-business marketing, and project management. Students who complete the minor will be positioned for career opportunities as direct sales engineers who play a key role in the selection, purchase, installation, and maintenance of technical products by selling technology and engineering solutions, or as manufacturing representatives who independently form contracts in exclusive marketing territories for multiple small manufacturers of compatible but not competing technical products.