Work Hard, Play Hard at The Center's Upcoming Project Management Summer Camp

BY: KAREN GOIKE & RICH WOLIN

This summer, The Center will host its first-ever Summer Camp training for Applied Project Management. Held in Traverse City, this training will give participants the opportunity to complete an accelerated project management program while experiencing the beauty of northern Michigan in the summer.

Learn more about the benefits and details of the training, as well as the supplementary activities, below in a brief Q&A with Karen Goike, Senior Business Advisor and certified Project Management Professional, and Rich Wolin, Regional Vice President of The Center’s Traverse City office.

What benefit does Applied Project Management (APM) training provide to an organization?
Karen: Project management training provides workers with a structured, standardized way of getting work done. This enables them to bring efficiencies to doing work while reducing waste, which leads to huge savings in both time and money for the organization.

What benefit does APM training provide to an individual?
Karen: After completing APM training, workers can be on the cutting edge of their organization as they have the tools needed to work on projects leading the company. This is a great boost for a career, especially when students go on to earn a Project Management Professional (PMP) certification. For those looking to take the certification exam, this APM course satisfies the education requirement.

Who should attend this training?
Karen: Most individuals can benefit from taking the APM class. We have students coming in at all levels of experience, with some dedicated Project Managers and others relatively new to the world of project management.

What kind of topics or tools are covered in the APM course?
Karen: The course encompasses the main steps involved in any project, starting with project selection and approvals, moving on to managing stakeholders, schedules, budgets and risk.

Rich: I’ve attended the course, and I can say from experience that the concepts covered in the course are excellent at helping leaders get organized with launching projects. It helps you anticipate some of the common challenges, hurdles and risks that might come up in projects. We’re taught to make sure we have all the right people in the room when working on a project, and we learn how to find out when bad things happen right away and to avoid letting tasks get dropped or forgotten. The course helps anyone become more organized in their project management, no matter how complex the project might be.

What does ‘Work Hard, Play Hard’ mean in this context?
Rich: In terms of working hard, this is an accelerated version of our APM course, which typically takes place over 10 weeks with four-hour classes. This is a more immersive, dynamic program, requiring attendees to participate in a lot of activity-based learning, with individual, small group and large group activities incorporated into each lesson. While the program is more rigorous, it also enables participants to complete the training and prepare for a certification exam much faster. But it also involves playing hard – we anticipate the participants will make lifelong connections with each other through networking and optional activities we have planned. We even encourage them to bring their families along to enjoy Traverse City together.

Karen: This is a great learning environment to really focus and complete the course quickly, while getting to meet individuals from different organizations or industries and learn from each other. And in the evenings, when training is done for the day, students can enjoy the many nature trails, restaurants, breweries/wineries and other exciting features Traverse City has to offer.

When is the course?
Rich: Our APM Summer Camp in Traverse City runs from August 2-6 with daily classes from 8:30am to 5pm. Participants must register by July 1 – so save your spot now!

To learn more about the APM Summer Camp course or to register for training, click here. View The Center’s additional Project Management training options here.


MEET OUR EXPERTS

Karen Goike, Senior Business Advisor & Certified PMP
Karen has over 25 years of experience in project management and business analysis.  She is a certified Project Management Professional and Lean Office Champion. 

Rich Wolin, Regional Vice President of Northern Lower Operations
Richard has been with Northwestern Michigan College (NMC) since 1987, Director of Training since 2001, and Director of the Northern office of the Michigan Manufacturing Technology Center since 2003.  Richard is the creator of the Active Learning Model training hundreds of Michigan companies in Leadership, Team, and Lean skills by applying the ALMTM model. He and his staff have also trained leading companies to use the ALMTM internally.

Since 1991, the Michigan Manufacturing Technology Center has assisted Michigan’s small and medium-sized businesses to successfully compete and grow. Through personalized services designed to meet the needs of clients, we develop more effective business leaders, drive product and process innovation, promote company-wide operational excellence and foster creative strategies for business growth and greater profitability. Find us at www.the-center.org.