Project Management Scholarship
WMPMI would like to consider partnering with sponsor businesses and the educational community to offer a project management scholarship. In the program developed by the Southern Florida Chapter, the scholarship award is based on a project competition whereby applicants prepare and present project management deliverables, such as a charter/business case or project plan. As part of their commitment to community outreach, they are drawing awareness to their chapter as well as the project management profession, especially within the college and young professional community. We see potential benefits to doing a similar program in Western Michigan.
We are also considering whether we should develop certification training for some of the new offerings in the PMI certification family such as the Risk Management Certification, PMP-RM; Schedule Management Certification, PMP-SP, and the CAPM. I discussed with other Michigan Chapter leaders the possibly to partner the development and usage of these materials. We will need to evaluate this further to determine the availability of material and training resources, as well as overall demand.
We believe that the formation of an Education Council is a top priority for 2010. Made up of key stakeholders in PM Education, members would be challenged to discover how WM PMI, education and training providers as well as industry leaders could align and support each other with educational offerings. This is important because the input of all stakeholders is a key variable in deciding how to proceed on all educational initiatives. With this approach, we believe that we can maximize the value that the WM PMI organization can provide to both our members and partners.
None of this is possible without you. We need talent and fresh ideas to make any of this happen. If you find yourself interested in helping in any of these areas, or you have some ideas you would like to explore, please let us know. To learn more about how you can help, refer to the Volunteer section on our website. http://www.westmichpmi.org/volunteer.php
Kelly Talsma, PMP, MSPM
VP of Education
Western Michigan Chapter of PMI