Welcome to BuyWays, the schools procurement e-learning resource.

BuyWays has been developed by the Department for Education, as a basic introduction to procurement. It can be used by anyone working in any school in England - bursars and business managers, administrators, governors, teachers and headteachers – as well as staff in Local Authorities or other public sector bodes working with schools, and anyone in the process of establishing a new school, including free schools and Academies.

Schools-based users can register to access BuyWays, by clicking the 'Create new account' link on the right and following the simple registration process there. To register, you’ll simply need to know the name of your school's Local Authority, and the school's unique 4-digit ID number. If you don't know this, your school bursar or business manager should be able to tell you. If you’re working elsewhere in the public sector, or your school is not yet ‘live’, please email the Enquiries inbox below with your details, and we’ll give you guest user registration details.

The BuyWays learning modules can be used as an introduction to anyone new to schools procurement, or as a handy 'refresher' for more experienced buyers. There are six modules in the course, including the Procurement Cycle, EU Legislation, and Contract Management. There are also case studies to help you learn about real-life procurement, and short review sections where you can test your knowledge. And we will shortly be adding links to other procurement resources, such as a helpful Decision Tree and basic procurement document templates.

We hope you enjoy BuyWays and find it useful!

For guest access, or any other queries, please email Buyways.ENQUIRIES@dcsf.gsi.gov.uk.