Professional Project Management

Achieve results on-time and on-budget in this online project management course

Learn how to ensure project success with practical project management consultant, Sean Whitaker. Learn the skills you need to deliver projects on-time and on-budget, with positive stakeholder engagement.

Developed by Project Management Consultant Sean Whitaker.

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Overview

Are you managing a complex project? Got multiple projects on the go? Constantly juggling deadlines and stakeholders? Whether you’re a professional project manager wanting to upskill, or new to the field and looking to learn the fundamentals, this short online project management course will grow and develop the skills you need to successfully manage projects and relationships from start to finish.

Presented by Project Management Consultant Sean Whitaker, you’ll explore the tools and techniques you need to successfully lead projects and develop teams. You’ll learn how to best start, select and close projects, use scoping processes, estimate cost and time, undertake risk analysis, manage quality, prepare for change management, and understand project management maturity.

Dig into the essentials of communications management and how to conduct stakeholder engagement with a range of groups – including effective engagement with iwi. Exploring case studies from a range of industries, you’ll learn how you can apply project management skills to grow your career in any field where you’ll be leading people and projects.

This course is ideal for: 
  • Anyone looking to improve their project management skills
  • Project managers and consultants
  • Any professionals managing projects and portfolios across marketing and
    communications, construction, engineering, health, IT and more
  • People managers and team leaders

Testimonials 

  • “This course exceeded my expectations. Both online support staff and course facilitator were excellent. Nothing was ever too much trouble and the level of support could not have been better.”

    Learner Psychology of Wellbeing

  • “Clear and concise presenters with a wealth of knowledge. Easy for non-techy people like myself to navigate and submit work.”

    Learner Nutrition and Wellbeing

  • “I liked that I could go at my pace and review the content as many times as I needed. The facilitator was also very helpful with any questions I had.”

    Learner Instructional Design Basics

 

What you'll learn

  • The process of project selection, initiation and closure
  • How to create a work breakdown structure, and define the scope of a project
  • How to apply tools and techniques of estimating and managing project costs and time, and measuring project benefits and risks
  • The importance of stakeholder management and how to apply effective project leadership and communication techniques
  • How to develop useful risk register to assess and mitigate project risks
  • How to plan for, and successfully implement, organisational change
  • How to ensure and apply change management processes and project quality assurance
  • How to carry out effective project procurement and choose the right contract
  • How to assess organisational project management maturity

Course outline

Our courses are flexible, enabling you to plan your study around your other commitments. You can choose to study when it suits you during the learning period (15 July - 15 September, with a one-week study break from 12 - 18 August), followed by a 2-week review period for marking and feedback (16 - 29 September).

We recommend completing around 6 hours of study a week during the learning period (excluding the study break). 

Module 1 – Project selection
How to start, select and close the right projects.

Module 2 – Defining and managing project scope
Review samples and gather requirements for a project scope statement.

Module 3 – Managing costs
Estimate and manage project costs, using the Earned Value Management technique.

Module 4 – Managing project time
Explore network diagrams, Gantt charts, and project management software.

Module 5 – Risk management and change management
Define and manage benefits and risks, using change management plans.

Module 6 – Team leadership and stakeholder engagement
Explore techniques to lead projects, teams and communicate with stakeholders, including effective engagement with iwi.

Module 7 – Procurement and contracts
Manage project quality, working with procurement and contracts.

Module 8 – Organisational project management maturity
Assess organisational project management maturity.

Assessments
  • 7 quizzes = 25%
  • 7 portfolio activities = 75%

Upon successful completion of the course you will be issued a digital badge to recognise your learning achievements. This can take up to 2 months to be delivered after the marking and feedback period.  

Requirements

There are no prerequisites for this course – it is open to anyone who has confidence listening, reading, and writing in English with an interest in learning more about project management.

Technology requirements

We recommend a laptop or desktop computer and a reliable internet connection. For most courses you'll need to download and populate assignments. These are usually available as Microsoft Word documents.

Course fees

Course fees must be paid before learning can begin, either via online credit-card payment, or by contacting info@uconline.ac.nz to request an invoice. Please note: fixed invoice payment dates apply, so we recommend getting in touch with us as soon as possible to request an invoice, as this option is subject to availability.

Minimum enrolment threshold

Please note: Tuihono UC | UC Online has a minimum enrolment threshold that must be met to enable opportunities for interaction, discussion, and feedback. If the minimum number of enrolments required for a course is not met, enrolled students will be given the option to defer their enrolment to the next course date, or receive a refund. 


Our people

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Sean Whitaker

Project Management Consultant and Teacher

Sean Whitaker is unique in the profession of project management in that he has successfully delivered complex projects in the construction, urban redevelopment, telecommunications, software, IS/IT, business change, and organisational transformation industries. He brings this wealth of project management experience to his project management training and can pass on complex ideas to people in ways that can be understood and applied immediately.

Sean has developed, designed, and delivered project management training for adult learners including introductory level, post-graduate tertiary level, and PMP examination preparation. He is a regular conference speaker and is also the author of several books on project management best practice and how to pass the Project Management Professional (PMP) examination.

As a project management consultant, he has had a global career working with some of the world’s leading IT, mining, energy production, space exploration, construction, telecommunications, transport, research, education, mining, and primary production organisations to improve their level of project management proficiency and competency. His consulting approach is based on pragmatic jargon free advice that is appropriate for the client and their immediate needs.

Please note: our academic team develop and present video content within their courses, but are not always the course facilitator. The course facilitator will engage with learners in the course forums, answer queries and mark assignments.