PROJECT IN THE SPOTLIGHT
UOW’S APPROACH TO INCREASING STUDENT EMPLOYABILITY
THE REQUIRED SKILLSET OF PROJECT MANAGERS IS RAPIDLY CHANGING, AND AS A RESULT, FORMAL PROJECT MANAGEMENT EDUCATION NEEDS TO INCREASINGLY ALIGN WITH INDUSTRY, SAYS THE UNIVERSITY OF WOLLONGONG’S (UOW) DR MARCO FERIS AND PROF RODNEY J CLARKE. HERE’S A CASE STUDY OF UOW’S NOVEL TEACHING APPROACH TO INCREASE STUDENT EMPLOYABILITY THROUGH SIX COMPLEMENTARY PRACTICES.
A report issued in 2021 by the Project Management Institute (PMI) foresaw that
Tertiary educational institutions are now offering a wide range of programs, including at undergraduate, postgraduate, executive education, and doctorate levels. On the other hand, the predominant industry judgement concerning the traditional project management education is that it is not preparing students to deal with the complexities of the business environment. Among other factors, students: • are not exposed to real situations • are not encouraged to critical thinking • are not properly prepared to deal with conflicts. Moreover, universities are being forced to adopt a new set of behaviours to
1. Project team
2. QPLAN website
3. Google forms
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The six complementary practices (source: UOW)
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organisations will need to fill approximately 2.3 million new project-based roles each year by 2030. This growing need for qualified professionals makes formal project management education increasingly important in many universities.
