Managing the Future
A growing number of military personnel are turning toward degrees or certifications in project management to enhance their skills and boost their careers. Among this group are those looking to prepare for the challenges they’ll face in attaining higher rank in the service or securing employment after leaving the military.
By Christian Sheehy
A growing number of military personnel interested in pursuing their education beyond the high school diploma or even college undergraduate degree levels are turning toward degrees or certifications in project management to enhance their skills and boost their careers. Among this group, frequently deployed in locations around the world, are those looking to prepare for the challenges they’ll face in securing employment in the corporate industries and management-oriented professions of today.
Addressing this trend, various U.S. universities and colleges have established degreed and non-credit certification programs in the arena of project management. These programs are enabling servicemembers to attain graduate-level degrees and project management professional (PMP) certifications that will help them to attain the next rung on the managerial ladder in both their service careers and beyond.
Graduate Degrees in Project Management
Phyllis Tutora is the director of The George Washington University Master of Science in Project Management (MSPM) degree program at the School of Business. Established in the fall of 1996, the program is a 12 course, 36 credit hour undertaking presented in two 14-week semesters (fall and spring) or one 10-week semester (summer) format taking an average of two years of full-time study to complete. The mandatory content is spread across six core courses with three additional required courses and three elective options: two project management electives and one general elective.
As of spring 2008, 90 percent of MSPM program’s 340 students are part-time with about half enrolled in the program’s distance learning mode, identical to the program’s on-campus mode in both instructors and course content.
“About 40 percent of our current enrollment have prior military service or are currently in the military,” said Tutora. “Many of our military students are deployed at any given time, pursuing their degree through our distance learning component.”
Designed in an all-virtual online format, the main interface for the distance learning component is a web-based, static application called “Blackboard”. Class content is posted on Blackboard and is identical to that presented in the program’s on-campus mode. Distance courses are delivered on the Internet to allow for synchronous, or “real-time” interaction between instructors and students, but can also be downloaded after the fact from Blackboard as virtual lectures onto a CD for students lacking Internet access or Web-capable platforms such as an I-Pod.
“Course material is uploaded to Blackboard about 20 minutes after each classroom lecture ends,” said Tutora. “This allows distance learners who may have poor Internet connectivity to take advantage of fresh material at their leisure after missing a virtual class session, reviewing course content such as lectures, student chat room dialogues and instructor file postings like homework assignments and critiques.”
GW’s M.S. in Project Management program uses a “live” software application called “Elluminate Live”. Two days after a course is recorded to Blackboard, faculty will schedule a voluntary Elluminate Live session with the distance students in a live, real-time mode.
“This is a chance for the students to interact with the faculty member in a virtual classroom setting,” said Tutora. “The session is completely confidential and enables the distance student, in many cases deployed military folks, to take advantage of important interaction with professors that they may have missed if unable to immediately view the virtual course session.”
The M.S. in Project Management program is not sector- or field-specific degree but rather facilitates and develops project management skills and abilities applicable to fields from non profit to IT to construction or government contracting and consulting.
Ellis College, Old Westbury, N.Y., offers a distance learning only online masters of business administration project management program tailored to the military student. Ellis project management courses are broken into six units, each dealing with a specific set of material for that particular project. For each unit, there is a discussion board where messages are posted for instructors who use the board as a platform for feedback to and from the students.
Ellis offers MBA degrees in the following area of specialization:
- Principles of Project Management
- Advanced Topics in Project
- Management
- Principles of Quality Design
“The key is understanding that military students never know when they may be deployed,” said Jim Dorris, dean, College of Business, Ellis College. “With this unknown comes the unpredictability of Internet accessibility. Ellis offers an asynchronous format that addresses this variable.”
Ellis Students who are deployed with online access are given extensions on assignment deadlines when necessary. Students who are suddenly deployed are not penalized for lack of Internet access or class preparation time.
“No matter what your career goals are, be it in a corporate, military, or non-profit environment, having the skills needed to successfully manage projects and people over time is an essential foundation for any aspiring leader.”
Certification in Project Management
A partner of University Alliance Online, Villanova University offers a non-degree, master’s certificate in project management that does not require service members, active or reserve, to have any prerequisities such as a bachelor’s degree or a master’s degree.
There are various types of military students in the program both active and reserve, CONUS and deployed, and in fields such as electronics technicians to logisticians to air traffic controllers to computer programmers to administrative professionals.
“We’ve recognized the challenges to these forward deployed service members such as their limited Internet access,” said Wayne Brantley, senior director of professional development, PMP, Villanova. “We have developed a program that can largely be executed off line, comprising video CD ROMs that we send out that do not have to be connected to the Internet to view. Students have access to all of the PPTs, workbooks and study guides associated with the course. When students can get online capability, they can continue their coursework without being behind in the content,” Brantley added.
When online, deployed students can have real-time interaction with their course instructors and classmates from around the world through a virtual classroom environment. Every week, there is a recorded, live interactive session. If a deployed servicemember is unable to attend the session due to time zone or connectivity reasons, the recorded session is saved on an online “message board” and can be reviewed later by the servicemember. Students can look at the video lectures on CD ROM which can be kept as permanent reference files. A deployed service member can use the CD ROM to review and re-review course material as needed.
“The message board acts as an “electronic meeting place” enabling the service member to interact with instructors and other students in a kind of live interface,” said Brantley. “Through this interface, deployed service members can connect with people across various industries, expanding their views and knowledge of project management by opening up the scale of interaction beyond the limits of the classroom.”
Live, real-time interaction in the virtual classroom is performed using voice over Internet Protocol (voIP) application. Deployed service members with Internet access can actually talk with other classmates over their computers using a simple microphone or by direct instant messaging. Using voIP, deployed students can “raise their hands”, laugh and show emotions in a virtual environment that helps their instructors and other classmates better interpret what they are trying to convey.
All courses areas are built around industry standards based on the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK). “The PMBOK is essentially a job standard that defines all the skills that one needs to know to perform as a project manager,” said Brantley. “Once a student has selected an area of study, it is recommended they take three, eight-week classes that, within six months, will enable them to complete their entire master’s certificate and be prepared to take the certification exams.” The project management master’s certificate program prepares students for certification as a certified associate in project management (CAPM) and a project management professional (PMP).
“The military member preparing to transition to a civilian career needs to ‘civilianize’ their credentialing,” said Brantley. A major part of this is achieving the CAPM or PMP certification that is today so often a prerequisite to the many careers opportunities only offered to those with broad project management skills.”
Villanova also offers supplemental project management certification courses students can take to help continue their professional development such as advanced strategic project management and maximizing team effectiveness. As an added incentive, active-duty, reserve and veteran U.S. service members and their spouses and dependents receive a discount on each certificate course.
Ellis College also plans to offer a master’s certification in project management. Students will be taught using a scenario-based approach to learning. Dorris said, “Rather than learning about project management in an isolated fashion, students actually manage projects under the tutelage of the professor. For the military student, this is an effective way to learn project management skills since, in the first week of the course, they become the project manager of a major project.”
From the Student’s Perspective
Jones International University (JIU) offers a Masters of Business Administration in project management and a Business Administration Certificate in project management. Both are offered in either campus or online format.
Military Advanced Education asked Debbie Neill, PMP, senior project manager and trainer at Schriever Air Force Base, Colo., and retired Navy veteran, about her experience with the JIU online M.B.A. in project management program. Ms. Neill completed her M.B.A. in project management at JIU in March 2008. She retired from the Navy in 1999 out of San Diego, Calif., where she received her B.S. in information technology. Neill has been a government contractor working at Schriever since 2005.
“While in the Navy, I worked project management for a number of years. I completed my B.S. in information technology and did networking projects when I first retired. When I started to pursue my M.B.A., I was interested in something that would move my PM experience forward as well as enhancing it. JIU had the M.B.A. degree with the project management specialty. Additionally, it allowed me to complete my degree online as I was traveling for my job at that time and needed that flexibility. The advisors at JIU were outstanding and very responsive to my concerns.”
“One of the things many servicemembers strive for as a project manager is to get their PMP certification. Once certified, they need to maintain that through continuing education. JIU is an authorized provider of continuing education required to maintain PMP credentials.”
“I currently work as a contractor on a military base. The course taught at JIU fed directly into my position as a PM while I was in school. Key elements included the up-to-date information that was taught regarding the PM field, directly applicable information that I used for evaluating and completing projects. Additionally, the business side of the degree provided additional information for managing projects from a business perspective that I didn’t see in other MBA programs.”
“In general, the online learning experience is an excellent opportunity for anyone that works to get their desired degrees. However, JIU seems, to me, to have a special relationship with military and veterans. They give a discount on tuition for military and veterans, accept tuition assistance, and work with students on scheduling issues." ♦