Upgrading for the job market
Sustainability, a shortage of skilled workers, work intensification, constantly changing market requirements, increasing customer demands, diversity in the team, the new work model, project work instead of routine - change processes that accompany our everyday working lives. How can managers cope with their complexity and uncertainty? What makes managers who already have both feet on the ground fit for this? The part-time Master's degree program "Project Management and Team Development" (in German). Course director Prof. Dr. Michael Dick from the Department of Vocational and Corporate Education introduces it.
What does the "Project Management and Team Development" course offer?
The current world of work is in constant flux: changes in structures, work intensification, complexity, uncertainty. Many development processes are realized through projects. New teams constantly have to come together for a project, adapt to each other, work together in an interdisciplinary, multi-perspective and flexible way. The project results in turn have an impact on the organization, structures and processes, on products and market movements. On the one hand, managing a project means tapping into and planning all the resources required to achieve the set goal. On the other hand, it also means recognizing the importance of the project for the further development of the organization. Project management is therefore both an operational and a strategic management task. This is why the course includes topics from the social sciences and psychology, as well as project organization, leadership and how learning and development processes can be initiated and sustainability promoted. Specific topics such as working atmosphere, teamwork and cooperation within the company also play a role.
Who is this course aimed at?
The course is aimed at specialists, junior staff and managers from all areas. We have administrative staff, engineers, employees of the railroads, at clinics or in science management and research projects, and teachers on our courses. Our courses are aimed at people who work as project managers or in interface positions in companies and organizations, as well as people returning to work, master craftsmen and women and working bachelor graduates.
Your motivation? You would like to acquire a sound understanding and methods of leadership and team development, as well as their interaction, and to underpin them once again theoretically and scientifically. You would like to make a personal career change, the professional demands on you have changed, as a leader you would like to take people with you in the change process, or as a career starter you have ideas that you would like to implement in your field but are constantly confronted with the "we've always done it this way" mentality.
How is the course structured?
The course comprises four semesters and is divided into five modules and the Master's thesis; three modules in which theoretical and practical qualification as a project manager takes place, methods, models and tools are taught; a module on team development, leadership and conflict management; a module in which research methods are taught and the Master's thesis is written under supervision. Graduates complete the course with a Master of Arts degree.
The course is part-time. What effort can students expect?
The program is very open and offers a lot of freedom. There are flexible ways of getting started, what prerequisites you need to bring with you, how you structure and organize your studies and which degree you choose. After the first year, for example, you have the option of obtaining a "Project Management" certificate and going back into practice.
We have designed the program in such a way that it is feasible in all life situations and professional contexts. This flexibility is geared towards different work-life constellations, and the blended learning approach enables a high degree of location- and time-independent learning.
One requirement is a professional activity. What do you expect from this?
The participants come from a wide variety of professional fields, as I have already mentioned. In the group work, they enrich each other with their very different wealth of experience and bring a wide variety of approaches, perspectives and reflections to the discussion. We expect a reciprocal relationship between science and practice. As teachers and course participants, we always receive the latest trends, challenges and problems in companies, organizations, administrations and society on a plate, so to speak. This is mutually beneficial. At the end of the course, a group identity, a network and a lively exchange of ideas often develops over many years.
What can graduates do after completing their studies?
The course is accompanied by a process of self-reflection, which we initiate and set in motion. Who am I as a project manager or as an employee in an organization? Where do my team and I stand in the company, in the organization, in the office? So it's not just about the operational view, the tools that can be used in the short term, methods and models, but about sustainable long-term analysis.
At the end, graduates of the Master's course should be able to recognize critical situations in projects and manage them. They will be able to assess the development of a project and its various dimensions and focus on the essentials. They are able to report convincingly on the objectives, results and developments of a project, both orally and in writing, and they have the ability and willingness to take on leadership roles.
Professor Dick, thank you very much for the interview.