Project and Programme Management Skills Training
We have created and delivered project and programme management training to hundreds of individuals and teams. Our approach is light on bureaucracy and heavy on practical application and has been adopted by entire Government Departments to improve delivery.
Understanding the context and current skills
To prepare for effective delivery we first like to understand the work that your team does, the challenges they face, and gain an insight into their existing project management skills. We are keen to ensure that the training we deliver starts at the point where your team currently are and works with training exercises that are relevant to the context of your teams’ work. During this phase we also agree with you a case study to be used throughout the training that is relevant to the organisation’s work.
We do this through a combination of meetings with your senior team, attending team meetings, and one-to-one meetings where needed.
Module development
We bring together the insights from these familiarisation sessions to design and develop modular sessions covering your key requirements, taking account of any existing materials you have, and any specific material on ways of working you wish to cover. We then create a one or two-day training session with context-relevant training exercises. We review and agree the approach with you before finalising it for delivery to your team.
Developing organisation project templates
To help embed project management ways of working and achieve the maximum benefit for the organisation we would design and agree with you a set of project document templates for your organisation (project initiation document, project plans, report template(s), outcomes reporting, risk registers). These templates would be used in the project management skills training and then should be used for subsequent projects to improve project management consistency and to embed the learning.
Module delivery
Training is delivered over two one-day sessions, ideally separated by two to three weeks to allow time for participants to put their learning into practice on live projects. To maximise value for staff and for the organisation we work on a real strategic project and use the training sessions to scope and plan the project, assign resources, estimate budgets, identify measurable outcomes and business value, and identify and manage risks.
In any case, it is essential to ensure participants have a project they can work on following their training session(s) to ensure the learning is put quickly to use. We suggest the training happens in three groups of eight or nine to give adequate time for each staff member to participate and to be given individual attention.
The sessions themselves will be run workshop-style. They will be highly interactive and focus on collaborative learning and sharing of knowledge. Although the theoretical principles will need to be put across to those who are not familiar with them, they will not be standard ‘chalk and talk’ sessions.
Our trainers are trained facilitators, able to enthuse and engage an audience with a high energy, enthusiastic and passionate delivery style. All sessions will involve a mixture of theory and practical application using a mix of solo and group work and will conclude with individual or team action planning.
To find out more about how WCL's Project and Programme Management Skills Training can help you and your organisation please contact us.