PMI Academic Workshop to be held in the UK
17 June 2011
In a recent Economist Intelligence Unit report [EIU Dec 2010], the global economy is spending a significant 18% of combined GDP on infrastructure projects. As a result of this and according to The Anderson Economic Group, there is currently a supply-demand skills gap in project management. With this in mind and for some time already, PMI has been providing support for Academic Institutions to encourage the adoption of Project Management courses as well as sponsoring of Project Management research, providing accreditation of Project Management degree programmes and providing students of Project Management a range of benefits, should they wish to become PMI members. As practising Project Managers, we are always on the lookout for new skills and capabilities to further improve our ability to deliver successful projects and this liaison between PMI and Academic Institutions is yet another welcome addition.
PMI Academic Workshops create awareness of this need and this year they are being held in Berlin and Abu Dhabi as well as Mexico, Brazil and Argentina in Latin America. We are now delighted to announce the UK will host its first Academic Awareness Conference (Workshop) in Spring 2012 (more details to follow). These Workshops will offer excellent networking links between Institutions and UK Chapter members who attend. In addition, (for example) PMI can provide help in defining course syllabi, assist faculty with preparation for degree programme accreditation as required and provide SME lecturers from PMI member volunteers.
The PMI approach is also being complimented by the British Academy of Management which will run a symposium at Aston University in September this year including a Dean's panel presentation on the mportance of teaching PM and discussion on 'Building and Sustaining High Performance Organisations through Project Management: An imperative for business school management offerings'. There is clearly a lot happening in this space and we will provide updates on progress and events as they occur.
