Finally, one month after finishing it, I get to write about the course I attended at the Hogeschool Utrecht on PROJECT MANAGEMENT. It’s been over a month now since we finished the course but… two weeks on vacation (with no internet) and then re-adjusting to work (many new things going on) take quite a lot of energy and time 🙂
Getting back to the point… I attended the course ‘Project Management, from Theory to Practice‘ held at the University of Applied Sciences Utrecht (Hogeschool Utrecht). The course was part of the Summer School organized by the three Universities of the dutch city: University of the Arts Utrecht, Universiteit Utrecht and the University of Applied Sciences Utrecht. The summer school is actually (if I’m not wrong) the biggest in Europe, offering courses covering all disciplines, from science to business and arts.
The course introduced us into the world of project management for two weeks, which (surprisingly to me) passed so incredibly quick! I really loved the program of the course and its structure, having both theory –on the first week we studied so much!– and practice –almost like working on a real project. Along the course, we also had a PRINCE2 examination and I successfully obtained the PRINCE2 Foundation Certificate.
However, I think that even more important than the certificate was what we learned from working with such a diverse and international group of people, the work dynamics and the soft skills we found ourselves using to manage a team. There were bachelor, master and PhD students, Postdocs, people on their first job and people with many years of work experience. People from all around Europe, Morocco, Pakistan, Egypt, Indonesia… And such heterogeneous group of people came together in a team we had to manage. However, this great experience would not be possible without the academic quality and guidance that the teaching staff provided the course with.
First of all, Prof. Gilbert Silvius took the lead of the course and throughout the whole program he accompanied us and held both theoretical lessons and practical exercises. He was always happy to share a coffee and discuss or advice us about anything. Secondly, Henk Zwijnen carried out most of the theoretical content, always focusing on PRINCE2. He managed to take us into the language of Project Management and to set clear every aspect of PRINCE2, often using examples and discussing the ambiguous points. Last but not least, Dr. Dagmar Zuchi was the leader of the practical work on the second week. Working as a facilitator at Enable2Change, she had a great deal of experience in helping people give their best and change their perspective about what they do, how they do it and why. I think that the famous quote by Benjamin Franklin completely applies to what we did with Dagmar and Gilbert:
‘Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn’
And just to make it even better, Utrecht is such a beautiful and vibrant city. Really. I loved to drive around by bike, wander around the streets, grab a beer with the people I met…
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