Abstract:

Research background: the abilities for strategic and operational planning, teamwork, results' orientation acting, and under pressure decision-making that are timely applicable and adaptable to dynamic and crisis contexts, is a major advantage of all courses in project management (PM). For this reason, it has become almost a classical training as part of the disciplines within the curricula of many professional fields: from engineering, computer science, through traditional business specialties, through specialties in the field of political science to programs in security and defense. However, this massive penetration of PM in the training programs did not lead to the expected result in terms of the acquiring of skills and competencies.

The purpose of the article: The paper is presenting the thesis that the direct integration of the PM courses in the curricula of any bachelor or/and master programs, without ensuring the necessary knowledge background, as a condition for understanding the PM by students, leads to non-satisfiable results in terms of real skills acquired. The identified problem gets profound when PM training is to be put without adaptation, in the framework of regulated professions such as those in the medical field or even more so when integrated into the security spectrum, in civilian and military specialties. Addition pressure factor is the digitalization of the PM field and the integration of highly specific software and skills in the traditional training scope of the PM. At the same time, however, the practice shows that when it is synchronized with the main focus of the disciplines in a given program, it might be used as an educational booster, repeatedly enhances the educational effect and improving the development of competencies and skills of the students. It is achievable when the course in PM turns into a PM course for the needs of the respective field. The paper re-considers the training in PM in the field of security as a tool for internationalization of this specific education, transfer of knowledge both between student teams and between university teams of students who have chosen to study the discipline within the semestrial mobility.

Methodology and findings: The paper presents a model of adaptation of PM curricula, covered in bachelor's and/or master's programs in the field of security and defense to the specifics of the security sector. Data, assessments, and observations in a comparative plan from the training in PM performed in a military university and a multidisciplinary university is presented, outlining the following problem areas: differences between the studied project cycle and the adapted project cycle in PM for security, skills, and competencies, acquired through classical training in PM in programs for bachelors and/or masters in the professional field of security and through adapted training in PM for security. Also, the results of virtual course execution with international Erasmus students in the context of the internationalization of higher education and the effect of knowledge transfer through the application of adapted PM programs for the needs of the specialty are described. SWOT analysis, gap analysis, and comparative analysis were used as the main research methods, and besides evaluation tools and description of practices were applied. PM for the security training program has been reconsidered as a tool for knowledge transfer in security and defense education.

Keywords:

Project management, competences, knowledge transfer, internationalization, adaptive curricula.