Higher Education's role in the development of tomorrow's Project Managers
Posted by Dan Strayer on 4 August, 2011 - 10:53
I'd be interested in knowing the APM's organisational view about how higher education establishments have begun a widespread introduction of degrees aimed toward a focused curriculum on project management. Whether these degrees are Bachelor's or Master's, or even if we're just talking about a professional Diploma on PM, a new generation of PMs may in fact be evolving from a focused study on project management. As members of the leading organisation dedicated to the betterment and professionalisation of project management in the UK, I'd love to get the APM's opinion on how such degrees would be perceived in the marketplace in the years to come.
In addition to the organisational viewpoint, as these forums encourage the input of individuals, an individual perspective on the viability of PM degrees would also be of particular interest.
We're also conducting a survey on the matter of Higher Ed and PPM development at Survey Monkey: go to http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/higher-ed-ppm to give us your two pence.
Posted in
Because Project Management is now becoming recognised as a discipline in its own right, we expect there to be a continued growth in this type of course, and we expect to work with the growing network of providers to ensure that the courses are of value to the people who take them, and that the graduates are of value to their employers when they start work.
APM already works with a number of HE providers in the accreditation and recognition of their provision against our Five Dimensions of Professionalism. We also have a thriving Education Network Advisory Group and Education Network Forum. We also work closely with our Corporate members Group to help ensure that successful graduates from HEI programmes get the chance to put their knowledge into practice. Several high profile PM employers – for example, Rolls Royce and Network Rail – have initiatives to sponsor their employees through relevant Masters degrees, and we work with such employers to recognise these achievements within our membership, qualifications and RPP structures.
An intresting post Dan, thanks.
Hopefully of interest, as a Yorkshire & North Lincolnshire Branch of APM we are looking to hold a session/event/workshop with our branch corporate members and our Higher Education Institutions (HEI) members - the aim would be to look at what corporate members require now and in the future in terms of training/degrees etc, and what the offerings are from HEI currently and planned - and then see if these match up, and if not, what can we do to rectify this.
Any views would be welcomed.
Regards,
Ed
Just thinking about an organisations view of project management degrees - I wonder if there is a correlation between the level of an organisation's project management maturity and a requirement for PM based degrees in potential employees. In our work at Arras People almost all organisations ask for a degree educated PM when recruiting but its very rare that the degree should be stipulated as project management related. What makes some organisations, like the ones Liz highlighted above, take project management education more seriously than others?
Thank you for your comments, Liz and Ed!
It seems like the APM is out front on this, which is nice to see on both the national and certain local branch levels. I find particularly intriguing what in fact caused the demand for PPM-related curriculums as universities expanded their course offering in recent times. So often, we've heard the "I kind of fell into project management" career paths, and it feels as if degree-related courses of study wanted to focus a new generation's career path more exclusively. When applied altruistically, this can do wonderful things for the profession.
But having said that, we were all 18 once, and the unavoidable realities of a good soft skillset for future project managers has to manifest itself, regardless of what you studied. Is the PM grad an automatic fit for its long-term practise? I'm reminded of a law professor who once told me that those in the profession (and in law schools) actually frowned upon pre-law undergraduate courses of study, just because it didn't offer enough variance in preparation for study of the real world.
With no intent of sounding the least bit editorial here, I'm curious as to what APM members like yourselves might think about this honed-in course of study as it pertains to the yet-to-be-realised PM-ready skillsets that once studied engineering, psychology, business and computer science. Employers can't ignore the skillsets as much as they can't ignore other traits, can they? Given that, how do we avoid taking away development resources and mechanisms that once brought new PMs to the forefront of the profession?