ASU and NASPO Build Public Procurement Career Pathways for Students

Making public procurement visible

Public procurement has a visibility problem: students often associate the field with private companies, leaving the work state and territorial agencies do largely off their career radar. That gap matters because procurement connects public agencies with the goods and services they need to serve communities. A partnership between Arizona State University (ASU) and the National Association of State Procurement Officials (NASPO) is designed to bring the profession into students’ coursework and campus life before they graduate.

The centerpiece is the NASPO Department of Supply Chain Management at ASU, the first academic department of its kind to explicitly include public procurement in its curriculum. The department, ranked the nation’s top undergraduate supply chain management program by U.S. News & World Report, was established with a $35 million gift from NASPO. It serves as a hub for education, research and professional development, connecting students preparing for procurement careers with practitioners looking to build their skills.

A department can give the subject institutional standing, but that alone doesn’t guarantee students will see it as a career option. The partnership’s broader aim is to make public procurement legible through repeated contact: in courses, conversations with practitioners and experiences tied to agency work. This is a practical response to a recruiting challenge. Students can’t seriously consider work they rarely encounter.

A campus presence makes the field tangible

NASPO’s approach depends on sustained contact with students and faculty, not just a place in the curriculum. The association created a campus liaison role, held by Program Operations Coordinator Mia Carlton, to track academic interests and identify ways procurement can contribute to classroom discussions, research and campus events. The role gives NASPO a point of contact inside the university and helps turn a broad partnership into specific opportunities for engagement.

Carlton also connects NASPO’s state members with opportunities to speak, mentor and collaborate at ASU and in their home states. The arrangement gives the association a closer view of campus priorities while helping faculty and students encounter procurement through practical examples. That two way exchange matters: practitioners can explain how their work operates, while academic conversations may help agencies consider questions from a different angle.

“Most juniors and seniors only know what procurement is through the lens of private companies without giving thought toward public entities,” Carlton said. After two months of campus speaking engagements and career fairs, she said, students were regularly contacting her to learn about public sector work. “They are deeply drawn to the impact one can make in their community.”

That response suggests the issue may be less about a lack of interest than a lack of exposure. Public service offers a clear point of connection for students who want their work to affect their communities, though a burst of attention at events doesn’t by itself show how many will pursue the field. This is more significant than it looks: visibility is an early step in building a talent pipeline, even if it can’t guarantee one.

Experience starts before college graduation

NASPO Ignite, the association’s talent development initiative, extends career awareness beyond university classrooms. Its partnership with DECA introduces high school students to procurement through speaking engagements, judging and the DECA NASPO Procurement Challenge. The challenge asks students to take on the perspective of a procurement professional serving their community. It gives students a way to encounter the field before choosing a college major or career path.

For college students, NASPO’s Internship Connect Program links participating state procurement offices with student talent. NASPO recruits students and provides grant funding to support internships. The summer program is open to all 50 states and U.S. territories, with students working in selected participating offices to see how procurement supports public services firsthand.

That workplace experience can help translate classroom concepts into the everyday demands of agency work. Procurement decisions involve public needs and institutional processes, so an internship can make the responsibilities more concrete than a course description alone. The program’s reach depends on which offices participate and which students are selected, but the model gives agencies a structured way to introduce the profession to emerging talent.

NASPO also offers an Academic Scholarship to students interested in public procurement or public service. The support is intended to ease education costs and give recipients room to focus on their studies while developing their professional interests. Scholarships can reinforce a career pathway, though their effect will depend on whether recipients can also find relevant coursework, mentors and work experience.

Connecting academic work with agency needs

For ASU, the partnership brings procurement professionals into conversations already underway across the university. Adegoke Oke, professor of supply chain management and NASPO endowed department chair at the W.P. Carey School of Business, said the connection lets students relate their studies to challenges practitioners face, while giving faculty, students and state offices opportunities to learn from one another.

The value of that exchange rests on keeping it tied to real agency questions. A university can contribute research and teaching; public offices can bring experience with the work and its constraints. If you’re working in this space, the useful test is whether those connections lead to sustained projects and career routes, rather than occasional appearances on campus. Here’s the thing: a partnership’s structure matters, but its results depend on continued participation from both sides.

That exchange could broaden as NASPO expands its Academic Talent Expansion Program. The initiative is intended to help more state procurement offices work with nearby colleges and universities through internships, scholarships, career fairs, guest speakers and research collaborations. Its design points to a wider network of local relationships, where students can meet practitioners without relying on a single university partnership.

What the model could mean for the field

The ASU partnership offers one model for making public procurement visible as a career: put practitioners in students’ orbit, create hands-on opportunities and connect academic work with agency needs. Its strongest feature is the combination of education and contact with working professionals. A single course can explain the field; repeated exposure can help students judge whether its work fits their interests.

The longer term question is whether these efforts build a steady path from awareness to employment. That will take time and depends on the opportunities agencies can offer, as well as students’ access to internships, mentors and relevant study. And yet the approach addresses a basic problem directly: students are more likely to consider public procurement when they can see what the work involves and who it serves. A starting point. NASPO says students and professionals can find details about its initiatives at naspoignite.org or by email at [email protected].