Is certification in procurement/Supply Chain necessary to excel in this field or formal education or job experience is good enough?

The following are most important, in my view, by order of importance:

1- attitude toward work, self motivation

2- passion / talent for procurement (both purchasing and sales have to have that talent thing that a colleague of mine calls business eros)

3- intelligence

4- any degree really, but preferably in the field you will be purchasing (cuz it's easuer to get deep into the subject)

5- work experience in the field you are purchasing (e.g. if you are purchasing marketing services, it helps to have a few years experience working in marketing)

6- work experience in purchasing, preferably under mentorship of a person who has at least1-3 ;)

7- certification really serves as crutch to hiring managers in the sense of a "guarantee" they hired the right (wo)man for the job.

hope this helps, thanx for the invit.

Fomal education and job experience enough

A certification maybe necessary but in my opinion it is not at all  essential. It is a tool used by Diploma Mills to ensure that they stay in Business. There is no guarantee that a candidate  having a top certification in Procurement will be more competent than others who have a undergraduate or postgraduate degree in business.  A manufacturing industry experience will always give you the advantage over others.

To be on top of your game, you need to have knowledge and experience in following areas

1) Inventory, Logistics and Supply Chain:   Have  complete knowledge of materials management, Distribution, logistics and warehouse management.  You should be able to decide at a strategic level appropriate service levels, areas of responsibility, handling and risk assessment.

2) Organisation Awareness : You must be able to understand roles and responsibilities and where procurement is placed within the organisation. Positioning procurement and making it as a profit centre.

3) Negotiation Skills : You dont deserve what you get but you get what you negotiate. Negotiation is the key in all forms of communication. You should be able to resolve difficult situations and conflicts by negotiation.

4) Relationship Management : You should be able to identify different stakeholders and formulate appropriate strategy,

5) Leadership: You should be able to lead and support the team, delegate duties, initiate and manage change, coach and mentor staff, manage conflict, be a key decision maker and also recognise the inputs of others in your team. You must be able to lead the management and address all risks and issues competently.

All the best.

Certifications are a great way to excel in your chosen field.  Without eductation and field expreience a Certificate does not hold as much weight.

Experience is the best way to handle any kind of Job

At Procurement field,u have to use your intelligence and negotiation skills,not to mention that you have to be good in math also.

In my point of view these days certifications play a key role in your job chances or career progression probabilities.Certifications are usually acquired by the professionals who have been in a particular field for sometime even 1 or 2 years.Experience indicates that you have encountered certain work situations before however certification means you are competent in applying your experience to the real life work situations.Plus they give you an edge over the other applications who are not holding those particular professional certifications.

So if you talk about procurement or any other field there are some intrinsic requirements of every business function for instance in procurement you might need to be an effective negotiator.Having a professional procurement means that you are competent in delivery those attitude , skills or abilities that form an intrinsic feature of that job function.

Formal training gives a direction for the desired work. With experience, a person with formal traing excels.

Certainly certification can be benefitial for the broader understanding of procurement, but not absolutely necessary. Experience and developing ones knowledge and complementing that with certain contractual coarses can be absolutely fruitful.

Job experiance is most important for procurements especially with the huge challanges over the world. 

Formal education usually used to promote the employees.

In my point of view these days certifications play a key role in your job chances or career progression probabilities. Certifications are usually acquired by the professionals who have been in a particular field for some time even 2 or 3 years maximum. Experience indicates that you have encountered certain work situations before however certification means you are competent in applying your experience to the real life work situations. Plus they give you an edge over the other applications who are not holding those particular professional certifications.

So if you talk about procurement or any other field there are some intrinsic requirements of every business function for instance in procurement you might need to be an effective negotiator. Having a professional procurement means that you are competent in delivery those attitude , skills or abilities that form an intrinsic feature of that job function. More over Usually requires a rigorous evaluation process, and it requires an organization whose sole focus and goal is to ensure that the people to whom it issues certification designations have demonstrated a defined minimum level of competency and experience in a given field of practice. It also requires adherence to ethical codes of conduct. It should not be "easy" to achieve professional certification through organizations that establish strong, credible professional certification systems. Professional certifications must also incorporate requirements that a certificate holder remain active and continue to learn and stay up to date in their field, this is often called re-certification, or continuance of certification

.

Passion, dedication and a positive attitude are the basic requirements to excel.