APIC is involved in research and high level consulting activities for major industry sectors and corporations.

Aviation Terminal Expansion Project (2008)

APIC is currently conducting Project Health Checks for a major organisation in the Australian aviation industry. The projects are grouped under a major terminal expansion to cater for passenger growth projected through to 2015. The first project assessment was conducted in June-July 2008.

Train the Trainers Project (2007)

Asia Pacific International College was awarded a major contract to train 30 highly qualified trainers to MBA (Project and Program Management) level as the second phase of an industry wide program that seeks to enhance the competencies of around 5000 managers across the petrochemical industry sector in a Middle Eastern country. This includes Engineering Firms, Contractors, Consultants, Clients, Vendors and Manufacturers. APIC expects to be awarded a number of other contracts as part of this visionary program.

The selected 30 qualified trainers are being taught within the APIC system to become leaders and act as agents of change within their own training and educational organisations.

As part of this scheme, a National Project Management Training and Competency Centre (PMTCC) will be set up as an independent qualifying and certifying body which will rigorously assess and certify managers´ competencies for 5 roles. The PMTCC will accredit and monitor the quality of training programs as well as apply competency assessment protocols. Under these protocols, a panel of experts will objectively and systematically assess the application by individual managers. All qualified managers will be registered and required to undertake continuous professional development and periodic re-certification. Rules of tendering and pre-qualification will be modified so as to enable companies to have certified managers in their team in the near future. All the tuition cost for the industry wide training and development will be paid for by the government to encourage maximum participation.

"The award of this contract to Asia Pacific International College is highly significant as it is a recognition of our high quality programs for professional development of managerial staff in project-based organisations, says Professor Jaafari, President of APIC, �The transformation of an industry sector with such a large volume of investment requires a far-sighted approach. We have conducted sample studies that show returns to be over $ 6,000-$ 12,000 for every dollar invested in training project management rank and file across the industry sector."

"Indeed, the return on investment on training will pay for itself through improved project outcomes", he adds.

Top

Shaping National PM Standards (2006)

In 2006 Asia Pacific International College successfully delivered National Project Management Competency Standard and Associated Training System for the Petrochemical Projects Sector in a Middle Eastern country. This project is the most comprehensive of its kind in the world as it sought to define and apply an integrated system to raise the capabilities of the entire industry sector.

The field research was completed by the end of July 2006. It included Health Checks of 2 major petrochemical projects as well as the assessment of managerial competencies of up to 40 existing managers in five different roles, comprising Senior Projects Executive, Project Director, Project Manager, Project Line Manager and Project Engineer or equivalent positions in all sides of the industry, i.e. Client organisations, Engineering and Procurement (EP) Management organisations, Construction contractors (C) and Suppliers (S). APIC mapped and benchmarked the existing competencies of these roles as well as the results of the project health checks to ascertain the existing situation in this major industry.

Subsequently APIC applied the findings of the field research to define a PM Standard covering the competencies needed for the roles and developed this into a National Standard for Competency in PM for Petrochemical Projects. At the request of the client APIC developed a 10-year master plan to be applied in 3 stages that entail training up to 4,500 project management executives in this sector. This project is a component of a major programme to raise the overall industry capabilities, including assessment and further development of project-based management capabilities within the multiple industry entities. The system APIC has researched and developed is the most comprehensive of its kind in the world and one that is virtually assured of raising the capabilities and productivity of this industry sector.

APIC´s competency-based system of training and education has been adopted for training of the managers in this sector.

Background: The petrochemical sector is undergoing phenomenal expansion and it is expected that around US$14 billion will be invested in new projects over the next 5 years, on top of the existing $US11 billion in progress. Planning, engineering and the delivery of such projects require international cooperation. Up to 85% of the contents are internationally procured. The scale and complexity of these projects require high standards of professionalism and leadership, not to mention the systems and tools that aid project teams to successfully plan and deliver these projects. Based on an advanced Chart of Competencies, the project will deliver the diagnostic tools to map existing competencies of managers, assistance in setting appropriate competency targets, training units that will help candidates acquire the missing competencies as well as customised performance assessment and development schemes that specifically address the performance enhancement in target organisations.

Top

Online Diagnostics for Projects (2006)

2006 - APIC has developed the online project diagnostics tool PH-Check which is now available for use. PH-Check is an online system used to diagnose the health of a project or program at any point in its life applying 18 criteria and 67 indicators derived from 15 years of research on management of projects. The service offered is for both casual and regular users who wish to measure their project performance from business and strategic perspectives through to leadership and team management, implementation management and so on. To date, it has been used to assess several large projects and produced findings that guided management´s attention to poor areas in terms of management competency, performance, tools etc. Registered users will be able to build a history of managerial performance on a given project and view the trends in terms of individual functions or associated enabling factors.

Top