Project management

S.P. Jain Dubai and Asia Pacific International College (APIC) of Sydney, Australia, signed a Memorandum of Understanding for Project Management. SP Jain is ranked the second best business school in India and is widely known as one of the best business schools in all of South Asia, according to the university. In a similar vein, APIC is an accredited institution of higher education that specialises in Project Management. They have joined hands to make available top quality education and training in project management to graduates and professionals in this region.

Participating in the ceremony were Professor Christopher Abraham, Senior Vice President of Business Development, representing the SP Jain Centre of Management, and Professor Al Jaafari, President of APIC.

Notes approached the professors, not only to find out about the qualifications offered but, to ascertain what the benefits would be if one were to enrol in one of the courses.

The courses

There are five courses on offer, in addition to tailor-made corporate training programmes. In reference to the corporate programmes Al Jaafari said, "We have at our disposal established diagnostic tools, which enable us to develop performance charts for individual competencies.

"This is turn allows us to spot the areas in which an individual needs improvement, letting us make programmes which are tailor-made to the individual's requirements."

Other programmes

The other programmess are designed to meet diverse needs. Professionals from various backgrounds or fields are eligible for entry, emphasising the universality of project management. However, they are graduate certificates, hence an educational background of a bachelors or equivalent degree is mandatory.

The shortest of the programmes, the Graduate Certificate in Project Management, also acts as the pathway programme. A six month course if done full time, it prepares one for the other programmes, if one does not have a bachelors degree.

Touching on a pressing concern, Professor Abraham makes a convincing argument as to why both professionals and organisations would benefit from the project management training. "In today's world 80 per cent of corporate businesses, whether they are aware of it or not, are dependent on Project Management.

"Project Management is such that it cuts across different domains and functions," he said.

He proceeds to illustrate this with the use of an example: " Let's take downsizing. When a company wants to downsize, that becomes a project in itself: how many people to downsize, who to downsize and many decisions of the like. Problem-solving and decision-making skills are called to the forefront. Managers become Project Managers by default."

The inadequacies that arise out of this role expansion are slowly being realised by organisations worldwide. He quotes study dine by Harvard University, which found that 85 per cent of projects in the United States were suffering from failures of management.

Besides, with $1.5 trillion being invested in the region's infrastructure, the scope for project managers is large.

Future prospects

Despite all the convincing research, what guarantees do we have that employers in the region would indeed prefer to hire professionals with project management training over regular managers?

"It all comes down to communication," he replies. "Spreading awareness will be a challenge, but we can do it."

How to enrol?

People can enrol in any of these courses at the Centre of Excellence in International Project Management in the S.P. Jain Centre of Management campus in Academic City.

Courses on offer

• The Graduate Diploma in Project Management.
  One year — intensive full time and three years if being done as part time.
• The Masters of Business and Project Management, also lasting for one year, can be done in four years when doing it part time.
• The Masters in Business Administration — 18 months — intensive full time , and four years part time.
• Another course on offer is the Executive Diploma in Programme and Project Management.
• All the courses are flexible and can be done part time, as earner learners may wish to do. "Our resources and know how, combined with the expertise of SP Jain, enable us to ensure that the courses are adapted to be region specific," Al Jaafari said.