The ECITB just celebrated the achievements of the latest cohort of mentees and their mentors who successfully completed the highly acclaimed Project Management Mentoring Programme.
A total of 15 project managers took part in this tenth year of the ECITB’s Project Management Mentoring Programme. This sees qualified and experienced project practitioners ‘mentoring-forward’, sharing their wisdom and guidance with less experienced project professionals to accelerate their performance and careers.
Andrew Hockey, CEO of the ECITB said: “Feedback from both mentors and mentees was hugely positive and shows the value this programme brings to both the seasoned and less experienced project management professionals
“As this programme enters its second decade, I am reminded of how well-regarded and highly respected the programme has become across the industry. It has become a blueprint for mentoring activities across the country, as well as other parts of the engineering construction industry such as nuclear decommissioning.
“Congratulations to all involved and a special thank you to the Project Management Steering Group (PMSG) and all of our mentors and mentees.”
Mentor Paul Dundee shared his experience of the programme: “Following a useful induction and matching session, Justin made all arrangements for our regular, virtual meetings and it’s fair to say, we hit it off from the outset.
“Scene setting was straightforward as Justin completed a self-assessment of his competency against his organisation’s Project Management skills matrix. So we used each session to steadily work through and improve his scoring for each.
“It was useful that I had previous Oil & Gas experience to fully appreciate context and Justin’s priorities, however, now working in another professional sector really helped us discuss and for Justin to apply the fundamentals of Project Management in improving problem-solving, organisational and his own capability.
“It’s fair to say we were successful, as Justin has recently secured promotion, taking on a more Senior Project Management role and shortly departs to take on greater responsibilities overseas.”
Mentee, Justin Bauwens noted that the programme had a “Very personable, professional, and flexible approach to sharing knowledge.”
He said: “The one-to-one setting worked very well for me in addition to being enjoyable and fun too.
“A very good way to learn and collaborate. Being paired with someone from a completely different industry showed that the basic principles of project management are the same and brought a fresh pair of eyes to my own experiences.
“The extensive experience and knowledge pool of my mentor helped hugely in being able to give real-world scenarios to learn from and translate my own experiences into learnings. This enabled me to see what I have achieved and target areas for improvement.”
Companies involved in this year’s programme include Air Products, Altrad Sparrows, Cephas Projects, dCarbonX, Nuclear Restoration Services, Nuclear Waste Services, Nuvia UK, Quortex Consultants, SafeSys Projects Limited, SeaFlo Consultancy, Limited, Seaway 7, Subsea 7, Technip FMC, Wood & Worley
Started in 2014 by the ECITB and the PMSG, the pilot scheme was aimed at young oil and gas professionals from the Aberdeen area.
To date, more than 164 participants have benefited from the ECITB’s Project Management Mentoring Programme, many of whom are working towards chartered status with professional bodies such as the Association for Project Management.
Applications for the next cohort of the Project Management Mentorship Programme open in March. Follow the ECITB social media platforms to get the latest news on this.