Meet the ABA Procurement Team
The first in our series of interviews with ABA Procurement’s office team, procurement tutors, and CIPS Students.
First up we have a woman who was the first member of the ABA team. A woman who is creative. A woman who is incomparable. A woman who writes all of the website content including this introduction for herself:
it’s Lu Hales-Greer.
Lu, a few moments before falling into a river in Mexico.
First things first, how did you end up in the world of procurement?
I was a high school English teacher, and when I left that I worked a few random jobs (including a job for the NHS that included representing cases exclusively for dead people. That was a weird one.), and one day I got a call from ABA Procurement asking if I’d be interested in a new challenge. I had no idea what procurement was, and literally had to google the word after the interview!
But it all worked out and I went from being an admin assistant, to running operations, to then buying the company in 2020 with Evie.
How has the company changed since you started?
Honestly? It’s completely different, and kind of exactly the same. We’re a much bigger company now, with loads more options for students and flexibility in our CIPS courses, plus we’re an apprenticeship provider now, have a procurement consultancy wing, and run CPD short courses and that’s all brand new in the last few years.
That being said, ABA started as a company when another training provider dropped the CIPS courses and closed their doors to students, so ABA was created to help them and get them through their study. That’s something we’ve never lost - first and foremost we’re there for our students. We move around courses, give people extended breaks, and support people long after they’ve graduated - it’s what makes us, us.
So, what do you think sets ABA apart?
Like I said, it’s us.
There are plenty of other training providers out there, some of them are cheaper, some of them have fancier resources, but they don’t do it the way we do, and with the care we put into it.
Evie, Lu, and Beth at the Victoria Palace Theatre to see Hamilton. Work!
We don’t tell students they’ve got X amount of time to complete the course or we’ll cut them off - the longest gap someone took between modules was 34 months, and when they came back we were just excited that they were in a place to be able to study again.
Our resources are all made by us. We don’t ship it out to some external company that runs an AI algorithm to decide what students should like, we make everything ourselves, welcome student feedback, and make changes and improvements in real time.
It feels a bit cringy talking us up this much, but I really want to shout about us! If a student or an employer needs anything they can pick up the phone and get one of the three of us anytime. If they want something changing, we’ll work to do it. If they want help with something, we give it. If they just want a chat, we’re there.
We’re not perfect, because we’re human, but I can promise you we try harder and care more than anyone else you’ll meet.
Quick Fire Question Time!
Outside of work, how do you spend your time? Outside of work? What is this wonderous thing of which you speak? Seriously, outside of work I’m currently prepping to go back to uni in September to get my masters in Creative Writing!
Who’s the most organised in the ABA office? Beth. It’s not even close.
Who’s the go to for CIPS student exam day panics? Probably me? High functioning anxiety for the win!
What’s your favourite book? Feed, by Mira Grant
Who’d win in a fight out of the ABA team? Evie
Who’s most likely to accidentally burn the office down? Evie (she’s totally going to say me, though)
Knowing what you know now, what would you tell yourself on your first day at ABA? This is going to be the hardest, weirdest, most chaotic thing you’ve ever done, and the absolute best choice you ever made.