School of thought

Project finds that a return to higher education is a popular choice with practitioners looking to up-skill and stand out from the competition in a declining labour market.

More practising project managers are returning to full and part-time education in order to enhance their career prospects and ride out the current recessionary climate. That is the view of several leading universities who have seen a significant increase in the number of enquiries and applications for management-type courses. Although the overall number of students is impossible to gauge at this early stage, with some courses not starting until January 2010, the level of interest reported so far has way exceeded the levels recorded this time last year in some cases by as much as 50 percent.

One such beneficiary is Cranfield School of Management, which has already received as increase in the number of enquiries for its 2010-entry MSc in Programme and Project Management course a figure that course director Dr Liz Lee-Kelley expects to grow as individuals and forward-thinking organisations look to broaden their skills-base in the years to come. Dr Lee-Kelley observes: Everybody is expecting a downturn and fewer applications, but weve had lots of interest and enquiries. I think this is just the tip of the iceberg and fully expect a stronger year for applications in 2010 and beyond.

For other course types a similar picture emerges. Aston business school in Birmingham has seen a 50 per cent rise in applicant numbers for its Masters in Business Administration, or MBA, programme; a trend that mirrors the latest statistics released by the Graduate Management Admission Council, which shows a 77 per cent increase in the number of applications to MBA programmes worldwide for 2008 entry the highest increase in five years.

On the back of this Aston has chosen to launch its Doctorate of Business Administration (DBA), an elite business programme aimed at senior managers wanting to combine study with work. Dr Naomi Brookes, director of the DBA, explains. It is proven over the years that executive development programmes become much more important to senior managers at difficult times, she said. Prospective students, including many senior business executives, are increasingly deciding that a period of development is a good option in an increasingly turbulent economic market.

So far, this has been borne out in actual numbers, with the DBA filing its quota of places with senior managers from a wide range of industry sectors, including two from project management interested in business transformation and change, and multi-national projects. Dr Brookes adds: The flexible, distance-learning nature of the DBA allows senior executives to combine a busy work schedule alongside study. Its designed to give managers a fresh business perspective and an essential mix of theory and practice that is needed to make real and lasting improvements in organisations.

Portfolio

Others have also decided that now is a good time to expand their course portfolio. Dr Paul Chapman, programme director of the MSc in Major Programme Management and Oxford Universitys Said Business school, was starting to question the wisdom of introducing a brand new MSc in the midst of the downturn but has been thrilled by the response. He says: Six to eight months ago we had our concerns over numbers so aimed to launch the programme with 20 students to ensure we had the quality cohort people would expect from Oxford. Since then the MSc has really taken off and weve received over 60 applications from literally around the world that has enabled us to grow the total number of students closer to 30. The modular design of this part-time degree means it is attractive to people in senior roles across a range of sectors from as far afield as Australia, Asia, USA and Latin America as well as Europe and the UK.

(Above: Said Business School at the University of Oxford)

Quality

The quality of applicant at Oxford has really shone through too. Typically students are aged 30-45 and range from senior programme leaders to a younger group with at least seven years experience of delivering projects. In each case the chief motivating factor is a desire to underpin a career in the delivery of major programmes. There is also a sense of uncertainty about what the next six to twelve months will hold in the economy, and many applicants have clearly decided to up-skill rather than wait for something that may or may not happen. Says Paul: Its classic rick management natural territory for a project manager.

Interest in the two-year course has come from right across the board including aerospace, defence, construction, energy, IT, to name but a few. There has also been strong showing from the financial services sector, where people who started out in project management are now looking to move back, but at a much higher level. People seem quite excited by the prospect, adds Paul. Fiscal stimulation packages and the need to re-service infrastructure means that many returnees can see a healthy career ahead.

Flexible

For many the prospect of returning to the classroom has been made more attractive by having the option to study as well as work. Cranfield, for example, offers modules taught in three day blocks, allowing students to carry on working or continue looking for employment opportunities. There is also a degree of flexibility within the course programme enabling third-year students who find that their dissertation cuts across family time or existing workloads to apply for an extension providing they have a valid reason. People sometimes think they can manage their time better than they can, Dr Liz Lee-Kelley, Director of the MSc in Programme and Project Management at Cranfield explained. So any drop-off is more about time than simple economics.

Timing is also an issue for those who find themselves out of work. Recalling recent enquiries from two project managers faced with the prospect of redundancy, Mike Bates from the Centre for Project Management at Leeds Metropolitan University says there is a sense that the rout to alternative employment may be a lot harder than first anticipated and many are turning to education in an attempt to see-off the worst of the downturn and wait for conditions to improve. One major bonus of taking a degree course is that candidates are able to show prospective employers that they are actively seeking to improve themselves, he said. That is a big commitment and we have to do everything we can to accommodate that.

This may mean offering a short course as opposed to a two or three year one. Bristol Business School has recently introduced Project Management Contemporary Issues and Challenges to its portfolio. The three-day course, commencing on 9-11 November, looks at the behavioural and organisational challenges of managing complex projects and is aimed at practitioners wishing to gain or refresh their knowledge of key project management issues. Dr Svetlana Cicmil, director of research unit in global operations and project management at Bristol, says the decision was a direct response to the current economic climate. We predicted some time ago that there would be a number of professionals returning to education to acquire further development and knowledge and have intensified our short course offering to meet the forecast demand.

But the proof of the pudding, as they say, is in the eating or in this case, the learning. Recalling his experiences of the MSc at Cranfield, Neil Hare, a programme delivery manager with the MoD and commercial manager within the Ministry of Defence ISS Commercial, credits his return to higher education as a key factor in helping to shape his long term career plans. He says: I am an engineer by trade but I knew that over the next 20 years or so my career would involve some form of project or programme management. So when I was looking to up-skill, I wanted to focus not only on tools and techniques but the new changes taking place in delivering programmes and projects, which are focussing on soft systems and methodology as well. The MSc at Cranfield provided this and I would recommend it to anyone who wants to learn something different and is willing to undergo change in their organisations and themselves.

Think tank

APM ENAG (Education Network Advisory group) was formed to represent the interests of educational institutions in the UK in matters of professional practice in project management and to advise, recommend and influence the strategies, policies and objectives of the APM.

ENAG acts as a think tank, taking ideas from a variety of sources (including APM branches and SIGs), evaluating the feasibility and viability of those ideas and where appropriate, turning them into strategies for future use.

Recent examples include APM Academic Accreditation, due to be launched in Autumn 2009, and the national APM Education Network Forum in November 2009.

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