Developing Programme Management Leaders in the Northern Ireland Public Sector Through Academic Enterprise

Following significant improvements in the conflict situation, Northern Ireland is undergoing a period of unprecedented change. Many political, social, economic and technological factors are driving organisations in the public and private sectors to undertake major change initiatives. The recent review of public sector administration recommendations, along with the recently announced £ 16 billion investment in public service infrastructure over the next ten years, stresses the importance of this change.Given the magnitude, complexity, nature and speed of change, traditional project management approaches are becoming less effective in managing and delivering this change. Particularly in the public sector, new programme management approaches are required. This paper outlines the key environmental drivers involved and describes an innovative approach to managing continuous change. To achieve this it is necessary for senior managers, particularly those in the civil service, local government and various arms of public administration, to develop a series of skills and competencies so that they can effectively and efficiently bring leadership and direction to their programmes.Through embracing the spirit of true academic enterprise a collaborative partnership has been formed between the University of Ulster and Deloitte (fully supported by the Association for Project Management, Northern Ireland Branch) to design and deliver a high level course for senior staff within the public sector and larger private sector organisations. With over twenty years experience in providing business and project management courses at postgraduate level, the university will provide significant input to the academic design and delivery of the course whilst the extensive in depth, practical programme management expertise of Deloitte will ensure that a leading edge educational course can be provided. The course framework will also allow other expert practitioners to have an input in the course when appropriate.The course, which caters for senior personnel in responsible positions, adopts advanced teaching and learning methods for the part time student and concentrates on issues that make a difference to individual and programme performance. An outline of the course, content and a dialogue on relevancy is given. The benefits to the Northern Ireland economy, the sponsoring organisation and the individual are addressed.