The University of Winchester’s MSc Project Management programme has received official accreditation from the Association for Project Management (APM).
The APM is the only chartered membership organisation for the project profession in the world.
The accreditation gives Winchester graduates a head start on the Recognised Assessment route for Chartered Project Professional (ChPP) status.
All students also receive free membership to the APM with all the resources it offers.
The accreditation gives the University access to top speakers in the field and links to people in industry.
The one-year MSc course has proved attractive to graduates from a wide range of disciplines, including many arts subjects, said programme leader Caroline Tite.
“It’s a great course as it gives the students a really wide range of possibilities for study and provides a good opportunity to move into this growing field of work,” said Caroline.
In the digital age there is a growing demand for qualified project managers not only in the traditional areas of manufacturing, construction and engineering but also in health, education, tourism and any individual business or organisation undergoing change.
The APM describes project management as a ‘golden thread’ helping to drive quality, efficiency and the effectiveness of strategic change in all sectors ranging from schools and charities to central government and major technology programmes.
The APM’s research shows that in 2019 the UK the project management sector generated £156.5bn of the UK’s annual GVA (gross value added) - 8.9 per cent of the total.
Four MSc students from Winchester calling themselves ‘The AI-nsteins’ were runners up in the Wessex APM Challenge and top performing university entry.
This year’s theme was AI and for their entry the Winchester quartet of Holly Tate, Molly Hamilton, Owain Lloyd and Annie Ogle organised a successful AI Symposium at the University’s West Downs Centre in February.
At the finals night last week (28 March) they presented their project overview to a panel of judges and a live audience at Southampton’s Grand Harbour Hotel.
The AI-nsteins were competing against teams from business and higher education and finished second behind BAE Systems, who had designed an AI board game, and ahead of rivals from the universities of Southampton, Portsmouth and Bournemouth.
Caroline Tite praised the Winchester teams efforts: “The AI-nsteins Team have done so well and we are pleased to celebrate their success. Our students were runners up in the APM Project Management Challenge, beaten only by a team from BAE Systems.
“This is a great success in that we recognise the students in BAE Systems work as trainee project managers, while our students have managed this challenge in their own time in addition to their studies on the Masters programme, and to their own personal commitments.
“Our team finished ahead of Universities in the Wessex region including Bournemouth University, the University of Southampton and the University of Portsmouth. This success will help to further raise the profile of our programme, and we hope to attract more students who may take part in future APM Project Management competitions to represent the University of Winchester.”
Team member Holy Tate said: “We were all absolutely delighted placing second and thoroughly enjoyed the chance to present our project to the panel of judges and 100-plus audience members. It was quite nerve-wracking but we enjoyed ourselves and our lecturers came along to support us, which was lovely.
“Overall, it has been an amazing experience and developed our project management skills greatly. Most of all, we are very happy we got to run the project and see our initial idea come to life.”
“The evening was a great experience and there was a lovely sense of camaraderie amongst all the young project professionals. I have made some great connections and got a chance to practice my project management.
Pictured: The AI-nsteins at the Wessex APM Challenge finals night. From left: Owain Lloyd, Annie Ogle Holly Tate and Molly Hamilton with Dave Corbin (centre) chairman of APM Wessex. Also pictured University of Winchester's Francesco Caputo (far left) and Caroline Tite (far right).