A local Business School is collaborating with an Australian institution to offer an 18-month Masters Degree in Project Management, beginning in January next year.
The Royal Academy of Career Develop-ment, formerly Micro Tech Financial has told Stabroek Business that it is preparing to offer the new post-graduate programme in collaboration with the Australian Institute of Project Management.
Non Executive Board Member of the Academy, Eusi Evelyn, who said that the programme seeks to upgrade both private and public sector skills in the various disciplines associated with Project Management further disclosed that representatives of the Australian Project Management Institute will visit Guyana later this year to work with representatives of the Academy in discussing “administrative, accreditation and curriculum issues” relating to the programme.
Evelyn said that the programme will be taught by Guyanese lecturers but that academics and administrators from Australia will be directly involved in overseeing standards and other issues relating to the programme.
According to Evelyn some limited advertising of the new post-graduate programme has already been undertaken by the Academy and there has been “some measure of response” from the public. “We are not yet in a position to provide information on the cost of the programme. We expect to be in a position to do so as soon as we discuss with our Australian counterparts,” he said.
According to Evelyn the Masters programme will focus on both theoretical courses and on ensuring the students are exposed to “practical and professional experiences” that have a bearing on “the desired outcome” of the academic experience. “Our programme offers the particular advantage of providing our students with access to local professionals as well as to a practical learning environment with which they will be familiar. We believe that these elements provide them with a far better opportunity to learn effectively while they are pursuing post-graduate studies.” Evelyn said.
Meanwhile, Evelyn told Stabroek Business that much of the focus of the Academy’s curriculum was oriented towards equipping “persons involved in the productive sector” to better plan and operationalise their enterprises. He said that the various courses being offered by the Academy in Proposal Writing and Business Manage-ment, among others, were designed to help participants respond effectively both to issues relating to the start-up phases of their ventures including accessing financing as well as identifying and accessing markets for the goods and services that they offer.
According to Evelyn the identification of the importance of agriculture as critical to the growth of the country’s economy meant that farmers needed to make changes in their approach to doing business. He said that the Academy believed that there needed to be changes in the approach to their operations “to allow for much more than simply understanding basic farming techniques. “Our aim is to help create linkages, where these do not exist between farmers and local institutions that can ensure the sustainability of their ventures. Our courses, for example, will seek to help farmers to recognize the linkages between what they do and the various ways in which technical collaboration with institutions like the National Agricultural Research Institute (NARI) can support them. Additionally we also want to explore with them the role that agencies like the New Guyana Marketing Corporation can play in helping them to access markets for their products and to secure other services related to the success of their businesses. What we really aim to do is to transform more farmers into effective businessmen,” Evelyn said.
