The development and delivery of an industry led project management professional development programme: A case study in project management education and success management

Global changes influence the project environment, client relationships and the behaviour of suppliers. The people managing projects (the project management community of practice) are increasingly important, requiring professional development and training. Project management education is time and resource intensive. Historically conventional return on investment criteria have not been applied to investment in the areas of education and training. This paper reviews a case study modular distance learning programme: The Project Management Professional Development Programme; providing education in generic project management for a consortium of four international companies across aerospace, infrastructure, oil and gas, nuclear design, construction and information technology sectors. The programme started in May 2000 and has currently circa 200 delegates having graduated 100. It is an academic-industrial collaboration between The University of Manchester (UoM) and Rolls-Royce, AMEC, Goodrich and EDS with some guest organisations participating also. The literature on educational issues, professional development, competence and Benefit Metrics (return on training investment) are reviewed. Particular attention is paid to the management and development of the programme and the project management of project management education. The drivers, development and implementation of a managed learning environment, and blended learning are discussed. This includes issues related to expectation management and the interesting benefits of educating different members of the supply chain represented by the industrial partners. The linkages between Benefit Metrics, project management competencies and learning outcomes in the context of an industrial-academic partnership are specifically explored. Discussions and conclusions focus on lessons learnt and suggestions on the development and delivery of the programme and its effectiveness. © 2007 Elsevier Ltd and IPMA.