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The Role and Responsibilities of the Contracts Manager Training Course

Getting from contract agreement to successful contract completion. Proactively manage your contracts by applying a logical and systematic approach to enable you to anticipate risks and resolve problems before they become critical.

★★★★★ "Catherine is a great presenter. She is extremely knowledgeable, and her love of contracts shows thro... more"

4-5 December 2023
from £799

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Format: Live online
CPD: 12 hours for your records
Certificate of completion

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Course overview

This interactive programme will examine the contract after it has been signed and has to be implemented as written and will focus on giving you the necessary knowledge, tools and processes to be able to read and review contracts. It will also give you the understanding and skills to communicate to others, internally and externally, the ‘as sold’ contract meaning to ensure that all promises are completed and that all parties remain within the protection of the legal agreement and are aware of the possible risks, liabilities and consequences if promises are broken.

You will learn how to apply a logical, systematic and comprehensive approach to reading, managing and implementing a contract so that you are confident and fully appreciate what is required of you, your team and the other contracting party(ies) to satisfy the legal obligations laid out in the contract. You will also be provided with a clear understanding of all the legal obligations and liabilities included within contract terms and conditions and gain valuable knowledge of best practice for monitoring and assessing the progress of contracts to ensure that they are actioned successfully and efficiently to provide the
best outcome possible for your organisation.

Drawing on the expert trainer’s real-life experiences and using many workshop-style exercises and examples, the topics will be brought to life to help embed learning. There will also be ample opportunity to network with others in similar roles across different organisations.

Whether your contracts are local, national or global this programme will:

Boost your knowledge to understand and manage the legal obligations and requirements set out in the contract
Inject you and your project team with the energy to fulfil your obligations and ensure an effective working relationship with stakeholders
Anticipate where potential risks may arise and proactively manage them to minimise, or neutralise, their impact on the project
Deliver a toolkit of best practice techniques to use successfully on your next project

Why you should attend

As a contracts manager you have the important and, sometimes, onerous responsibility of administering your organisation’s contracts in the most efficient and effective way. This practical course provides an in-depth look at the extensive role and responsibilities of the contracts manager and will give you a comprehensive understanding of agreements and their terms.

To ensure the smooth execution of a contract and enable proactive management of potential risks, it is vital to have clarity between the parties of the promises made and the liability allocation. You need to fully understand the contract management framework and best practice to reduce risks in contract delivery, and successfully manage supplier relationships.

This seminar will help you to:

Understand the structure of a legal contract
Be confident that you are operating under a legally binding contract
Appreciate fully what has been agreed between the contracting parties and what the legal obligations and responsibilities of each are
Recognise the allocation of risk between the contracting parties
Realise what the consequences will be if either party does not comply with the contract and fails to satisfy their legal obligations
Grasp the importance of being proactive in establishing a project plan, monitoring work, driving progress and managing risk
Value the benefits of undertaking a recap at the end of a contract’s life so as not to repeat mistakes made and to gain from the learning curve of ‘what went well’
Master new skills through the use of practical hands-on exercises and cases with feedback from the expert trainer

Practical exercises, facilitation and discussion sessions are used throughout the course to ensure delegates have a clear appreciation of the added value gained from being proactive in the planning and management of a contract. Attendees will be shown how to anticipate problems and resolve them before they become critical and potentially very costly, rather than managing the project in a reactionary manner.

Who should attend?

The course will be beneficial to every member of the project and contract delivery team including:

Contracts managers
Project managers
Commercial managers
Finance managers
Business development managers
Procurement managers
Contract administrators and officers

This highly experiential programme is a must-attend event if you are:

Managing the execution of commercial contracts
Accountable and/or responsible for the successful completion of contracts
Involved in the drafting and negotiation of final contract documents
Unclear of the obligations that contracts place legally on you and your organisation
In need of a refresher on the risks associated with a project

This seminar has been designed for non-lawyers

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The The Role and Responsibilities of the Contracts Manager course will cover:

Day 1
Day 2

Module 1: Before work commences

Understanding the structure of a legal contract from the contracts manager’s perspective

What is required for a contract to be legally binding? LILAC
Understanding what could make the contract void
Offer and acceptance – what they mean in practice
Invitation to treat
Letter of Intent, Authority to Proceed, Heads of Agreement
Legal status of a verbal vs a written contract: acceptance in writing, verbally or by conduct and their implications

PRACTICAL EXERCISE: Co-op vs ICL (International Computers Limited now part of Fujitsu)

Module 2: Reviewing and communicating the signed contract – making a plan of action

Identifying and engaging key stakeholders

Understanding the level of engagement needed for each stakeholder
Skills for effective teamworking – ensuring good communication within the project team
Ensuring the project team has the capacity and the capability to fulfil the contract
Communicating the contract requirements to the project team
Instilling value-for-money behaviours and actions
Assigning responsibility and accountability
Monitoring contract execution and providing feedback to stay on track

Understanding implied and express terms and how they affect contract execution

Understanding the starting point – implied terms
Understanding if and how express terms amend or deviate from implied terms and how they affect the contract in practice

PRACTICAL EXERCISE: Silence – focusing on key contract law acts, eg Sale of Goods Act

Recognising the promises of the contracting parties and their implications

Implications of the ‘what’, ‘when’ and ‘how much’ clauses
Understanding the scope of work/specification, including:
- Promises of the supplier and customer
- Acceptance criteria/measurement mechanism
Implications of the ‘Reasonable’ rule in English contract law
Importance of using the ‘Definitions’ section in the contract

PRACTICAL EXERCISE: Reviewing a scope of supply – identifying and interpreting the promises of each party and reviewing ambiguity

Proactive management of suppliers and subcontractors

The right to review, audit, monitor and drive progress of the contracting parties
Developing KPIs and monitoring against agreed performance goals
Service level agreements and motivating suppliers
Identifying risks and problem solving to keep the contract on track
Intellectual property rights and avoiding infringement
Non-disclosure agreements and managing confidential information

Risk identification and management to ensure contract completion

The five stages of risk management: identification, evaluation, mitigation, continuous monitoring, lessons learnt
Categories of potential risk and their implications
Passing, capping and limiting risk clauses

PRACTICAL EXERCISE: Storyboarding – creating a risk register: identifying all the potential risks and which of the contracting parties is responsible/liable for which risks

Understanding the consequences of breach of contract

Risk of termination of the contract if a party breaks their promise/breaches the contract
Compensation, not penalty – the considerations
Force majeure and the Frustrated Contracts Act

Understanding allocation of risk between the contracting parties

Passing commercial risk/liability with disclaimers, exclusion and indemnity clauses
Limiting commercial risk/liability with limit of liability clauses – liquidated damages
How to manage risk with Plan Bs – warranty clause
Unfair Contract Terms Act
Also consider liability in tort/civil law

PRACTICAL EXERCISE: Review of a sample contract using a ‘toolkit’ to identify and evaluate commercial risks

Module 3: Proactive management of commercial risks throughout the contract

The five stages of managing commercial risk

Identifying the potential risks
Evaluating and analysing the risks
Proactive risk management – developing an action plan
Monitoring of the risks and their potential impact
Best practice – evaluating the lessons learnt ready for the future

PRACTICAL EXERCISE: Traffic light analysis: probability and impact, cost and schedule

Making contingency plans to ensure contract completion

Proactive risk management strategiesMitigation/contingency planning
- Solutions not problems approach
- Optimum outcome if ‘best’ outcome is not possible
- Moving the project forward – practical remedies

PRACTICAL EXERCISE: Proactive risk management: mitigation and contingency planning

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Catherine Hurst
Hurst Consulting and Training Limited

Catherine Hurst Bsc(Hons), CIMDip, PgDL, is an independent training consultant in the contract and commercial fields. She was formerly a Commercial Manager at BAe Systems, following previous contract/commercial roles with GEC and Siemens. She has extensive practical experience of bid management, contract negotiation, contract and subcontract management as well as commercial risk management, both with UK and overseas customers and suppliers, in the private and public sectors.

She is highly experienced trainer, having a style which brings a subject to life, creating interest and stimulating the enthusiasm of delegates. Catherine has successfully provided training to a wide variety of private, public and charity organisations including: ScotRail, Nuffield Health, Balfour Beatty, London Underground, Forensic Science Services, Office for National Statistics, Phoenix Futures, Sellafield, General Dynamics, Siemens, Metronet, Thales, Surrey PCT, Metropolitan Police, ABB, United Utilities, Bristol Myers-Squibb, Hitachi, Co-op, Jungheinrich and Silvertown.

She is also a part time lecturer for the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply (CIPS). As well as being a member of CIPS, Catherine has a degree in Business Studies, a Chartered Institute of Marketing diploma and more recently achieved a distinction in her Common Professional Examination (CPE)/Post-grad diploma in law, winning the prize for the highest achieving student in the contract law module.

More details

Book The Role and Responsibilities of the Contracts Manager Live online training

NEW higher discounts for multiple bookings - bring your colleagues to make your training budget go further:

30% off the 2nd delegate*
40% off the 3rd delegate*
50% off the 4th delegate*

Please contact us for pricing if you are interested in booking 5 or more delegates

4-5 December 2023

Live online

09:30-17:30 UK (London) (UTC+00)
10:30-18:30 Paris (UTC+01)
04:30-12:30 New York (UTC-05)
Course code 12441

GBP 799 999
EUR 1,159 1,439
USD 1,327 1,639

Until 30 Oct

2 days live online training
Browser-based, no download usually required
See presenters and interact with fellow attendees
Download documentation and certification of completion
Fair transfer and cancellation policy

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* Early booking discounts may not be combined with other discounts or offers. As such, the discounts for 2nd/3rd/4th delegates are based on the full price.

Reviews of IPI's The Role and Responsibilities of the Contracts Manager training course

Catherine is a great presenter. She is extremely knowledgeable, and her love of contracts shows through in her presentations... Overall the course was fantastic. I was really looking forward to attending and it exceeded my expectations. The content was relevant to my role and I identified some improvements I can take back to my workplace, such as LFE and 'Tool Kit' to reading contracts.

Feb 22 2022

Rachael Whittle United Kingdom
Clerical Support, WESTINGHOUSE ELECTRIC EUROPE SA

Jun 10 2021

Excellent speed, positive vibe, good content, interactive approach. Catherine radiates her pleasure in dealing with contracts and knows her topic well. There is a genuine positive vibe to her story.. I feel the content provides a solid base to start expanding my role in contract management.

Patrick Helm Netherlands
Sr. Associate Contract Management, Genmab B.V.

Jun 10 2021

The full content was very valuable. Everything very well organized, presented. Special thanks to the speaker who really made this online course very interactive and passionate.

Christelle ZOZOR Switzerland
Contracts Manager, YARA SWITZERLAND LTD

Nov 21 2019

Really good course, learnt a lot. The speaker was brilliant, really easy to follow and great at explanations. The exercises were very good and helped test our knowledge and see where we needed work.

Hayley Merry United Kingdom
Procurement Manager, County Broadband

Nov 21 2019

It was very informative. The manual is a great reference with lots of sample clauses. The speaker was brilliant. She engaged everyone really well and made sure everyone understood contract law in simple plain language. She brought in a lot of examples which was excellent.

Abarna Sanjeev United Kingdom
Contracts Officer, Rockwell Collins UK Limited

Nov 21 2019

Good interaction with the group, presentation and delivery was clear with many examples of real life cases.

Kassim Toorawa Saudi Arabia
Lead Contracts Officer, Advanced Electronics Company

Nov 21 2019

I was hoping to achieve a better understanding of the terms of a contract and its associated risks. I think I achieved this and will apply the learning in my workplace. The speaker had good interaction with the group, presentation and delivery were clear with many examples of real-life cases.

Kassim Toorawa Saudi Arabia
Lead Contracts Officer, Advanced Electronics Company

Nov 21 2019

The speaker was a good communicator with good examples and you can tell she's worked in the 'real' world.

Adam Dziamarski United Kingdom
Commercial Manager, Clesse UK Ltd

Jun 20 2016

Very engaging, enjoyable and beneficial. I would recommend to colleagues.

Charlotte Boam United Kingdom
Commercial Assistant, Babcock International Group

Nov 29 2016

Very useful and constructive. Excellent speaker.

Kevin Mercer United Kingdom
Senior Contract Manager, Siemens PLC

Nov 29 2016

Presenter was very good. Venue was good and [the] course structure and timing were excellent.

Peter Carroll United Kingdom
Senior Contract Manager, Siemens PLC

Dec 2 2015

All good, very enthusiastic.

Martin Bartek United Kingdom
Commercial Risk Compliance Director, Swiss Post Solutions

Dec 2 2015

Perfect for my job. Very interesting speaker for a difficult subject to deal with.

Christian Billard United Kingdom
Buyer, SBM Offshore

Dec 2 2015

The speaker was very passionate about the subject.

Martin Bartek United Kingdom
Commercial Risk Compliance Director, Swiss Post Solutions

Jun 11 2015

Extremly enjoyable, I will recommend.

Gwendoline McKeen United Kingdom
Viju Limited

Dec 2 2015

Excellent.

Steve Keddie United Kingdom
Programme Manager , Trinity House

Dec 2 2015

Very good content delivered.

Mike Yaxley United Kingdom
Trinity House

Jun 11 2015

Very good - some useful and thought provoking examples and quotes from real cases of direct relevance.

Colin Thorburn United Kingdom
Estates Manager, States of Guernsey

Jun 11 2015

Relevant context, clear presentation, passionate speaker.

Valdis Vanags United Kingdom
LiDar Systems Engineer, 3D Laser Mapping

Jun 11 2015

Very good, personable, good venue.

Daniel Butterworth United Kingdom
Head of Structures Offshore Renewables, DNV-GL

Dec 3 2014

Excellent course

Robert Dale United Kingdom
Technical Services Manager, Trinity House

Jun 11 2014

Very good and worth the two days of the course.

Famous Najomoh Nigeria
Head, Shipping HSSE, Nigeria LNG Ltd

Jun 11 2014

It was interesting and our speaker made the course fun and enjoyable

Sarah Dorban-Hall United Kingdom
Senior Project Administrator, RAND Europe Community Interest company

Jun 11 2014

The course was brilliant and really well run. Catherine is an excellent presenter.

Chris Turner United Kingdom
General Dynamics

Jun 11 2014

Quite frankly it was completely excellent. The best course I have been on in years!

Tom Cockshull United Kingdom
Commercial Manager, Moog Components Group

Dec 3 2014

Excellent course. High energy presentation by a single speaker for two days - well executed.

Des Fisher United Kingdom
Airport Relations and Development Manager, World Duty Free Group

Dec 3 2014

This course was two days well spent and will definitely aid me in my role. I would highly recommend this to everyone dealing with contracts and suppliers as part of their role.

Marike Nolte United Kingdom
Gaming Product Manager, Genting Casinos UK

Dec 4 2013

Really enjoyable, good level of pace. I liked how real life examples were used in most cases - brought facts to life! Would definitely recommend.

Katie Huggins United Kingdom
CONTRACTS ASSISTANT, Pitney Bowes Ltd

Dec 4 2013

It was interesting when I expected it to be very boring! Bravo!

Joanne Ross United Kingdom
Office & Membership Manager, AIC

Jun 12 2013

I am satisfied with it

Natasa Sagernik Slovenia
Contract Administrator, Nuklearna elektrarna Krsko d.o.o

Jun 12 2013

Catherine's very knowledgeable and enthusiastic.

Simon Brown United Kingdom
NATS (Services) Limited

Jun 12 2013

Excellent insightful course superb presentation.

Tim Davis United Kingdom
Mechanical Services Officer, Central & Cecil Housing Trust

Jun 12 2013

Brilliant

Rupinder Chahal United Kingdom
Senior Customer Liaison Officer, CENTRAL & CECIL HOUSING TRUST

Jun 12 2013

Good course, better understanding and appreciation of what makes a contract work.

Anderson Foster United Kingdom
Mechanical Piping, Total E & P UK

Jun 12 2013

Very enjoyable and informative. Excellently delivered.

Richard Pack United Kingdom
Account Executive, Giles Insurance Brokers Ltd

Jun 12 2013

I was satisfied.

Natasa Sagernik Slovenia
Contract Administrator, Nuklearna elektrarna Krsko d.o.o

Jun 12 2013

All aspects were excellent - Catherine is a great trainer

Dawn Brand-Cotti United Kingdom
Commercial Manager, Herbert Retail Ltd

Jun 12 2013

Perfect!!

Wafaa Nasr El-Din Egypt
Contract Manager, PGNiG

Jun 12 2013

Presentation/speaker [were] excellent. Delivery - Catherine knows what she is talking about.

Dawn Brand-Cotti United Kingdom
Commercial Manager, Herbert Retail Ltd

Jun 12 2013

The speaker experience [is] what makes the difference.

Tim Davis United Kingdom
Mechanical Services Officer, Central & Cecil Housing Trust

Dec 5 2012

I liked Catherine, she is good and shows confidence coming from her "real life" commercial background. The content gives you a good start-up on the subject. It is advisable to also enroll on the on-line version.

Marius Palade Romania
Commercial Director, Kapsch SRL