How to develop your learning

For Learning at Work Week, we wanted to highlight some of the resources APM provides to help you with your learning development. Read on to find out about Gareth Pugsley’s experience and how he’s improved his learning.

So far this year, I have completed CRMP and APM risk management courses. As a student and teacher of risk, I need to stay current and am always looking to find more information and different points of views and methods. One way I do this is through the Risk Interest Network group where I’m currently a member and was even the leader for the last year. Through the Association of Project Management (APM) I have gained the ability to have access to those in the risk world that I could only dream of such as the head of risk for NASA and the UK government.

While helping to review The Body of Knowledge, 8th Edition (BoK8), I gained a better understanding of topics such as change management, critical path and risk management styles which has had an impact on my way of thinking and my teaching in a positive way through being able to give my students the latest concepts from this new publication.

Through my work as head of risk management, before handing over to the new leader, I was invited to present to Bournemouth crisis management centre on their master program and I would not have been able to do this without my learning and involvement in BoK8 and reading and writing academic journals this year as well as teaching at LCG.

I’m always telling my student that you should never stop learning and being a fellow of the APM has helped me access as much as I could ever want and use to try and make myself a better teacher. This has also helped me become a better academic in my writing and understanding of the subject of project management, in particular risk management.

The biggest use for learning and the APM is developing new course variations on slides for topics to cover both the new project apprenticeship syllabus as well as getting students ready for the PMQ. This has proved to be more enjoyable than I originally thought as it’s helped all my team build a better understanding of topics and it acted as a nice refresh for some others. The other area I have grown in and, the one I am most proud of, is being part of the editorial team for the Project Risk Analysis and Management Guide, 3rd edition. This has taught me even more about risk but also the process of editing and the issues developing a resource like this can have.

Having the backing of both Learning Curve Group and the APM has helped me broaden my knowledge and as a result, I’ve become a better teacher but also a better student which can be seen when writing academic journals or courses I’m developing.