Project management education and training process for career development

The overall goal of this research project was to improve an organization's core competency in construction project management in a focused and systematic manner, with the help of a formalized education and training model. This paper describes the development of such a model for education and training standards for career development at Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The need for this model was driven by the tremendous increase in the volume of construction work at SNL (post 9/11) along with several other factors [i.e., self-governance, customer feedback, and a new Department of Energy Order (413.3) for the handling of program and project management capital assets acquisition]. The goal of this research was to create a defined procedure to identify and quantify project management gaps and strengths, and then to develop a process to succinctly characterize each Sandia model participant's background qualification. This was achieved by administering a survey followed by a questionnaire whose results led to a customized training and development path, tracked both by individual and by department. Tools to address gaps were then identified and a role-task-competency hierarchy was created called the Sandia Project Management Career Development Academy model.