Who Should Get Project Management Knowledge / Training?

 

 

I train people on Project Management and sometimes I am asked “Who should get Project Management Knowledge / Training”?

Really every adult as defined in the constitutions of most countries is eligible to get a Project Management training.

Let me try and explain it under the following sub headings hoping that it will make sense that way. I hope you get what I mean.

We will work with these two simple definitions.

A Project is a any piece is work that has a start date and an end date and at least a goal.

Project Management is the way a person or a company organizes and manages resources that are necessary to complete a project.

1.   Corporate Employees

These are people that work for a medium to large scale organisation. They could be engaged in different functions such as Human Resources, Sales and Business Development, Operations, Finance, Corporate Communication, Administration, Technology, etc. Each of these employees should understand the fundamentals of project management because all the projects executed in an organisation is localized in one of these functions. Despite the organizational structure (Function, Projectized, Strong matrix, Weak Matrix or Balanced Matrix) of a company, the employees need to understand project management to ensure smooth , effective and efficient project execution and success.

 

2.   Family / Private Individuals

Husbands, wives, private individuals have different projects such as buildings, events, etc. to execute at one time or another. Therefore, they need to understand how to manage a project. Even if they have to hire professional project managers, a good understanding of project management will help them improve supervision and financing for the project. Ultimately it will also lead to efficient maintenance of the project during operation and make the project long lasting.

 

3.   Students

This is an interesting category of people that should know project management. Every year we have final year students of institutions writing projects in final fulfilment for the award of their certificate. I too wrote my project in the university. However, it is noteworthy that none of these projects follow the project management principle. With benefit of hindsight I will recommend that at the level of final year project, project management training should be included as part of their curriculum before or during their final year. This will help the students to manage their projects professionally and graduate well equipped with the capability to manage projects.

 

4.   Entrepreneurs / Business owners

Farmers, Traders, Small Business owners such as Event Management and servicing companies, etc. all should learn project management because of the type of projects which they implement. Event managers in particular should learn project management because each event is a project with a definite start date, end date and a goal.

 

5.   Religious Leaders / Workers

Churches engage in a lot of projects that requires experience in project management to handle. Yes, many of these projects get completed somehow but how efficient it is executed cannot not exactly be measured because it was not managed following laid down project management procedures.

 

6.   Government / Public sector Professionals

These set of people are crucial and should be made to mandatorily undergo project management training because of the high rate of failure of public sector projects. There are many abandoned projects by the different level of government. This is a reflection of the lack of project management skills. Proper project supervision should expose the inadequacies of a project during project review/kill point meetings and professionally determine if a project should proceed or not

 

7.   Job Seekers / Applicants

These are prime targets for project management training. Acquiring the project management skill will help them in three ways.

ü  Become a High Income Professional: Project Management is a high-income Profession so if a job seeker acquires this skill, they are well positioned to earn high income.

ü  Get a High-Income Job: A knowledge of project management can enable the job seeker to get a high-income job in a multinational, oil company, Technology firm, etc.

ü  Get a High-income skill: You can acquire Project management skill though training or university education depending on which one is accessible to you. The fact remains that one can acquire Project Management skills within a short time frame through training.

 

 

8.   Social Workers / NGOs

Social workers and Non-Governmental Organisations require project management knowledge to support them in the various projects they execute.

 

9.   Private Professionals

These categories of people include partnership firms like architects, accountants, Hospitals, Hotels and Hospitality industry organizations, Engineers, etc. These are professionals heavily engaged in projects such as road constructions, Electrification projects, Building construction, Process optimization projects, etc. They should know how to professionally manage a project. This is to avoid the failed project syndrome.

 

 

Summary

Acquiring the project management knowledge through training does not only help the recipient to manage the project effectively and efficiently. It should also be established here that since a project is a temporary endeavour, after completion, it will be handed over to operations to run.

 

The success of the operations depends very much on the quality of project implementation. Proper project management ensures that the right documentations are provided for suitable operations and maintenance.

 

When project management is not properly done, despite delivering the goal of the project, continuous operations of the project becomes problematic when there are maintenance issues. One thing that can lead to this kind of problem is the absence of a documentation manual. This will gradually lead to operational failure and the project will not meet the objectives over the long run.

 

Bottomline is project management is a skill that should be acquired by anybody who is engaged in any form of project of another.

 

Thanks for your attention

 

I am

 

Emeka Achebe-Okosieme

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