Undergraduate Curriculum & Resources Research

RFP

September 5, 2013

BackgroundThe PMI Academic Relations Program has been conducting ongoing research for the

past year or two that points to the increased recognition of the importance of project

management in undergraduate education. Currently very few universities world wide

provide such a program at the undergraduate level. Approximately 8% of our Global

Accreditation Center for Project Management Education Programs (GAC) members come

from undergraduate project management programs. The majority of the GAC are

universities with graduate programs in project management.

There is a gap in the supply-demand for project management talent and it’s growing

globally. According to PMI’s 2013 Project Management Talent Gap report, there will be

an estimated 15.7 million new project management jobs added globally across seven

project-intensive industries between 2010 and 2020. By providing the educational

foundation universities are creating future project management professionals to fill the

pipeline.

Objectives

With this research, PMI would like to be able to:

• Validate the concept of an undergraduate project management curriculum framework

and general structure

• Determine the resources the academic community would need to support this

framework and the most appropriate way to deliver the resources

Target audiences

1) Academic institutions:

─ Institutions to include – those with undergraduate programs in project management and/or programs in allied professions.

Allied programs included: Architecture, Computer Science, Information Technology, Business Administration, Management, Public Administration, Technology, and Engineering (civil, construction, energy, telecommunications, software, computer, engineering management, industrial, mechanical, nuclear.

─ Respondent to include: faculty educators and/or academic administrators

(associate dean, program director, etc.) of these programs

─ Regions to include: North America, UK, EU, Australia, India and Latin

America

Target audiences (Cont’d)

2) Hiring managers and recruiters:

─ People inside organizations responsible for hiring entry level positions

particularly those of project managers or those performing project

management activities HR hiring managers Non-HR hiring managers such as, project managers levels II or III,

program managers, directors/head of PMO, etc.

─ People outside of organizations responsible for hiring entry level project

managers or those performing project management activities such as,

recruiters or head hunters.

Sample

1) Academic

• Through the SalesForce.com database, PMI has approximately 2,000 contacts

in the specified regions and disciplines

• The lists will need to be supplemented with outside sources.

2) Hiring manager/recruiter

• Non-HR hiring manager list can be supplied by PMI

• HR hiring manager and recruiter lists will need to be purchased

Quotas

Region

NA UK/EU Australia IndiaLatin

America

Academic - Undergraduate

n=100 n=100 n=? ? ?

Hiring managers and Recruiters

n=100 n=100 n=? ? ?

Academic - Master’s degree

n=50* n=50* n=? ? ?

*This can be part of the undergraduate quota if the respondent is teaching both undergraduate and graduate courses.

Key Learning Objectives

• Needs of faculty when developing academic courses

• Do the faculty needs differ based on disciplines/subjects taught (IT, Engineering, Business, etc.)

• What do faculty currently do for course material?

• Reaction to curriculum concept – the concept will be a high level description of the

framework

• What tools and resources do faculty need to develop a project management course

• Curriculum, tools, learning outcomes, how to measure retention, how to achieve outcomes, lesson plan, background papers, text books used, syllabus, governance, etc.

• How would faculty like to access these resources

Academic

Key Learning Objectives (continued)

• What skills are they looking for in a candidate that will be performing project management activities?

• Reaction to concept (abridged version of what the academics see)

• How would this impact their candidate selection process

• What would their expectations be from someone with an undergraduate degree in

project management?

• Gauge participation in follow-up research

Hiring Managers/Recruiters