APIC is involved in research and high level consulting activities for major industry sectors and corporations. In the past three years APIC was predominantly involved in the petrochemical and aviation industries.

Professional Project Management Training Course for the Refinery and Distribution Company (2008-9)

In August 2008 APIC commenced the delivery of a professional project management training course for senior and middle managers of a major company that is engaged in an ambitious expansion program of building € 30 billion worth of new petroleum refineries and distribution network. The scope of the training course includes competency assessment of key managers followed by the development and implementation of a tailored training program to address the competency deficiency of key managers in the program. APIC faculty delivers intensive workshops on the location that lay the foundation for the competency development of the managers. They study in teams and follow the project-based clinical learning process of APIC while receiving mentoring and support. The whole process is run through APIC´ innovative online learning system. This project is very rewarding as the results of study are directly applied to improve workplace practices thus leading to significant progress and innovation on this front.

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.

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.

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 program 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 in the Middle East is undergoing phenomenal expansion. 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 map existing competencies of managers, provide assistance in setting appropriate competency targets, provide 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.

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 managerial 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.