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This guest article is by Brantlee Unhill, Managing Director, PMI North America.
The pandemic of 2020 has revealed a multitude of urgent needs in many areas of society. It is vital that school-aged children feel independent and in control when it comes to education.
I’ve found that I’m more productive as a professional working with deadlines and routines. It’s all about creating a plan, and then executing it. As a mom, I realized how doing the same with my son in elementary school would help us both be more successful when school and school became virtual in March 2020.
To manage the new expectations of living, working and schooling in the same place, we needed a schedule that we could both follow. It was important to balance the needs of family and work.
We all woke up at the same time every day, got breakfast, buckled down for school and worked, respected one another, and took breaks (outdoors if it was possible) to stay focused and engaged in school and work.
Next: How six project managers manage their work/life balance
We were frustrated when we didn’t follow the schedule and felt more exhausted than we needed to be. It takes discipline to plan and stick to a schedule.
McKinsey & Company analyzed assessment data from Curriculum Associates iReady platform. It found that students in their sample did not learn 67% of the math or 87% of reading that grade-level peers would normally have learned by the fall 2020.
According to McKinsey & Company, this could lead to three months of math learning loss and one-in-a half months of reading learning loss.
These statistics can be attributed to many factors, but the fact is that students stand to benefit from project management skills. They will learn how to plan, execute, monitor and close projects. This is what project managers do every day. Students can easily apply these steps to their coursework at any stage of education.
How can we make this a reality for everyone?
There are many requirements for curriculum, state tests and graduation milestones in the education system. This is equally important.
Simply put, students will be our future.
It is crucial to place priority on project management in schools if we want to empower the next generation of changemakers, those who are motivated and equipped to drive change, regardless of their roles. These skills will be useful for the rest of your life.
Project Management Institute (PMI), understands this urgent need. Project Management Institute Educational Foundation (PMIEF), has been helping young people to succeed for more than 30 years by integrating project management skills into everyday life. PMIEF provides free learning resources and facilitates mentoring programs. It also works with youth-serving charities to champion these efforts.
Imagine if this were the norm in schools around the world. What if teachers, school leaders, curriculum writers had the knowledge and tools to help students navigate this path to project managing? This would allow them to not only consider a career as project managers but also learn power skills such as empathy, collaboration, communication, and communication that will make a real difference in their personal and professional lives.
Schools have experimented with project management education. Read how schools in Poland and Jordan introduced project management skills into the classroom.
Here’s an old video showing the UK school’s experience with PMIEF materials in the classroom. What h?
