The Engineering Construction Industry Training Board's (ECITB) Project Management Steering Group (PMSG) has unveiled a new e-learning academy to strengthen project management capability across the engineering construction industry (ECI).

Hosted on ECITB's award-winning Learning Experience Platform (LXP), the PMSG Academy is designed for both current and aspiring project managers and is mapped to the Association for Project Management (APM) Project Management Competency Framework. The roll-out is being delivered in two phases, with the second phase set to refine and extend materials as industry skills gaps and priorities are identified.

Phase one features 27 courses organised around four APM framework categories: People and behaviours; Planning and managing deployment; Preparing for change; and Setting up for success. The curriculum was selected by a working group comprising PMSG members, industry practitioners and ECITB's LXP team to ensure content is relevant and practical. The PMSG is an industry-led forum focused on raising project management capability, competence and leadership across the sector.

David Manson, Working group chair and Business Manager at Altrad Sparrows, said: "Project management as a discipline is something that some people move into without formal coaching or a common career path.

"There's a wide breadth to the role of being a project manager, so it's valuable to share knowledge and tools to help raise awareness of what the different skills entail.

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"While the PMSG Academy does not provide a formal qualification, it will benefit those who work in projects, from helping new starters develop to reaffirming knowledge with existing project managers.

"The content we selected was broken down into the different project management competencies before being peer reviewed across a range of skills and competencies by employees at Subsea7 and other members of the PMSG.

"The positive feedback we received helped reinforce that the content is accessible, engaging, intuitive, easy to navigate, relevant and appropriate, while aligning with project management standards and frameworks."

The LXP, launched in January 2023, provides in-scope ECITB employers access to thousands of free online courses. Since its launch, workers across 195 ECI employers have completed more than 140,000 courses, delivering over £5 million in value to industry. For the PMSG Academy, the working group selected modules from a library of over 30,000 e-learning courses, with 12 Subsea7 employees conducting a peer review spanning graduates through to senior project managers.

Craig Bean, project manager at Subsea7, was one of the 12 in the review group: "As a project manager, it can be difficult to find time for training and development.

"The LXP's bite-sized modules were easy to access, and I was able to fit these into my week without having to re-arrange my calendar.

"The LXP covers a broad range of topics and provided a good opportunity to refresh on aspects of project management that I hadn't read up on in some time."

The PMSG also collaborates with ECITB on complementary initiatives including the Project Management Mentoring Programme (PMMP), the Chartered Project Professional (ChPP) Programme and the ECITB Project Management Conference, helping to share best practice and improve project delivery performance.

Matt Knights, ECITB Director of Regional Operations, said: "Ensuring the industry is equipped with skilled project managers is vital to ensure projects are completed on time, within budget and to the expected quality of work.

"The PMSG plays an important role in positively influencing skills and competence development for project management and project leadership in the ECI.

"The PMSG Academy will prove a valuable information resource for project professionals at all levels in the ECI. The flexible nature of the content means it will be used by organisations for self-directed learning, as part of a structured programme or embedded into project or role onboarding.

"While the academy is just for in-scope ECITB employers initially we hope to be able to roll this out to the wider industry in the future."

Further details about the PMSG and ECITB's project management programmes can be found via the ECITB website.