QUT is partnering with FutureLearn to offer a project management microcredential.
The university’s Pro Vice-Chancellor (Digital Learning), Professor Kevin Ashford-Rowe, said QUT had launched Project Management: Managing Front-End Planning via the online platform.
Professor Ashford-Rowe said QUT had already successfully partnered with FutureLearn on online MOOCS in areas such as robotics and data analytics and was excited to extend this collaboration to deliver to learners worldwide quality educational opportunities through microcredentials.
Project management remains a growth area of employment and is one of the most highly sought-after skill areas in today’s business world,” Professor Ashford-Rowe said.
“It is critical to business operations across most industry sectors.”
Professor Ashford-Rowe said QUT had an international reputation as a world-class provider and was one of the first universities to deliver masters programs in Project Management,” he said.
“The university has been delivering cutting-edge courses and corporate education in this area for more than 25 years.”
Project Management: Managing Front-End Planning starts on 24 February 2020 and will focus on how to plan and manage large scale projects and is a starting point for those wishing to become professional project managers.
Professor Ashford-Rowe said with the support of industry professionals, participants would learn how to use, select and apply project planning tools and techniques to resolve common project issues and support project delivery.
“As participants learn how to manage stakeholders, they will build professional communication skills as well as the importance project scheduling, ethical decision-making, and developing responsive project options.”
The QUT program is one of nine new microcredentials available on FutureLearn.com, the leading social learning platform. This first suite of microcredentials on the platform includes five other partners: The Open University, Deakin University, The University of California, Irvine Division of Continuing Education (DCE), Monash University, and Dublin City University.
The move to launch microcredentials – accredited, online qualifications designed to help learners build specialised skills relevant to their career – comes in direct response to demand from both partners and learners.
It is widely reported that there are skills gaps and that jobs for life now rarely exist. There is an increasing need to reskill and upskill in order to meet the requirements of today’s workplace. For example, The Global Learner Survey from Pearson late last year reported that the 40-year career has been replaced by life-long learning and diverse career paths, and highlighted that their respondents said the world was shifting to a model where people participate in education over a lifetime (55% in the UK and US, and 60% in Australia).
QUT, FutureLearn and its other partners recognise these changes in the workplace and are offering microcredentials to enable learners to stay relevant and marketable.
