Purpose of Construction Project Management - 1 Year Learning Programme
The importance of project management skills is often not adequately recognised. When having to ‘get something done’ you are probably dealing with either an ongoing repetitive ‘production process’, or with a project. The latter (a project) being any work to be done with identifiable beginning and completion dates. The above indicates just how much of the work that needs to be done requires project management skills. This is certainly true for almost all the work being done by numerous role players in the construction industry, hence the need for construction project management skills.
It is important to note that the necessity for project management skills is not a ‘single job’. It is a skill that has to be acquired by professional role players, construction contractors, the multitude of subcontractors in the industry, public and private sector employees in the built environment, property developers, facilities managers and even financiers of construction projects and infrastructure development projects.
The knowledge base required for successful project management is well defined and structured internationally. Though this is obviously a great asset to the project management fraternity, a danger lurks in studying the generic international body of knowledge, however, failing to translate it to industry specific knowledge and applications. The Higher Certificate in Construction Project Management specifically addresses the construction industry, as well as all participants in the built environment. Generic project management education and training based on the internationally acclaimed body of knowledge (Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK)) are offered by many institutions, but the application thereof to a specific industry, thus translating generic theory to practical application, is few and far between.
A career in construction project management is exhilarating; making you part of a process that creates fixed assets in the built environment which will often serve the community and other stakeholders for generations.
For purposes of the CEA Higher Certificate in Construction Project Management, the latter concept is defined as follows:
Construction project management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques in order to successfully execute a construction project within the state constraints and deliverables required.
Both the public and private sectors are challenged by the management task related to their large investments in the built environment.
The outcome of this qualification is to provide properly qualified people to the built environment industry, who can follow a career path from entry-level, middle management to senior positions in the built environment.