Training
Social Procurement Training for Governments & Institutional Purchasers
CCSPI offers a variety of training sessions and subject-specific webinars designed to help governments and institutional purchasers implement social procurement practices across their purchasing.
All training is available free-of-charge to CCSPI member organizations through the membership portal.
COVID-19 Update
Please note: Due to health & safety considerations in response to COVID-19, until further notice, all upcoming training sessions will now be delivered online.
We appreciate your understanding during this time.
SP101 - An Introduction to Social Procurement
This training session provides a detailed introduction to social procurement.
The session is interactive and attendees will have opportunity to work through several exercises in groups as well as to examine case studies and examples.
By the end of the session attendees will have a solid understanding of the concept of social procurement and some of the potential opportunities to begin to implement these practices in their organization.
SP201 - Implementing Social Procurement
This training session takes a basic understanding of social procurement to the next level and shows ways to begin to implement, measure and communicate social impact.
The session is designed for multiple staff, across regions. It is interactive and attendees will have opportunity to work through several exercises in groups.
By the end of the session attendees will be able to connect procurement outcomes with achieving local social and community development goals.
SP 301 - Social Procurement Implementation for Construction Projects
Building on SP 101 & 201 training, this session focuses on social procurement in construction projects.
Participants will learn about methodologies for achieving local objectives through social procurement, bid criteria and evaluation processes, project monitoring and evaluation, spending thresholds and unbundling projects and more.
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Training Resources & Guides
Guide to Social Procurement
This guidebook is an introduction to the why, what, and how of social procurement in Canada. It was developed by Buy Social Canada for several audiences: organizations taking the necessary steps towards social procurement implementation; others considering whether to or how to integrate social value into their current procurement practices; or simply those curious about social procurement more generally.

Social Value Menu Templates
The newly updated Buy Social Canada Social Value Menu now has two new versions: Community Benefit Agreements and Community Employment Benefits.
Social procurement is evolving as a standard means to leverage a greater value from existing procurement of goods and services. Concurrently, with the emergence of Community Benefit Agreements (CBAs), and the Community Employment Benefit (CEB) initiative process, there is a need to have a framework and guidelines to support an added social value from major developments and construction projects.
The purpose of these documents is to help users design, evaluate and implement a social value into their procurement processes for goods and services or major infrastructure and developments.


Free Webinars
Procurement, Resilient Economies and COVID-19
This special webinar, presented by David LePage of Buy Social Canada and Rory Kulmala of the Vancouver Island Construction Association, outlines how social procurement approaches can support local COVID-19-related adaptation and recovery efforts.
Good Practices, Verified and Amplified
Curious about living wage and other ‘social good’ certifications?
This webinar provides an overview to key certifications like Living Wage, Buy Social, BCorp and Fair Trade, as both a way for local governments to identify social value suppliers as well as a way to incorporate these practices into their own operations.