COMPETENCES FRAMEWORK FOR ENHANCING AND DEVELOPING EUROPEAN PROJECT MANAGERS SKILLS

Due to an increasing globalization of businesses, today’s managers often deal with projects of transnational dimension in which they are required to work with partners from different countries and cultures in an efficiently manner. Many of the international projects are implemented with the support of public funding bodies that expect and demand for a professional project management for using the available funds. Therefore, having the necessary competences and skills is of fundamental importance for a high-performance and reaching outstanding results.
Continuous learning can definitely contribute for helping project managers developing and improving their competences and skills, by providing them knowledge about new techniques and methods that can support them aligning the team to the vision of the project and implementing successfully the various activities. However, before deciding on the educational/training programmes to be considered by project managers, it is essential to identify those competences that are the most relevant for this profession.
A consortium of five organizations from different countries carried out a consultation among over five hundred project managers to find out which competences are considered essential to become an efficient project manager. The survey lead project managers answering a self-evaluation questionnaire concerning individual, social, professional and meta-level competencies usually associated to someone that manages projects. The results of this survey were achieved through a standardization procedure, statistical and psychometrical analysis of the collected questionnaires, and compiled into a Competence Profile of EU Project Managers describing the top qualities a project manager must have.
Based on this Competence Profile, the consortium will adapt an ICT Tool for Competence Measurement; and define a Training Curriculum for project managers to allow them improving the competences relevant for the various stages of a project implementation. Both outcomes will be tested and validated by project managers of the countries of the participating organizations.