“As a result of the pandemic, we saw an increased need for staff to exercise PM skills, since there were not enough PMs to go around,” said Brenda Bridges Cruz, deputy director for CDT’s Office of Professional Development. “They did not necessarily need to be a traditional PM in creating a schedule, budget, etc., but they needed to have the foundational understanding of how to lead a cross-functional team acting as meeting facilitators, creating high-level schedules and assignments, following up on those assignments and getting the team to goal completion.”
In a change from past PMLA programs, this year’s curriculum blends formal training and a new Project Management Experience component, which will replace the formal mentorship. This year, each student will be paired with a highly experienced project manager, and they’ll meet weekly during the program to share lessons learned, provide advice and insight as it relates to project management, and job shadow meetings of interest.
Other changes for this year’s program include:
- The academy's duration has been shortened from 10 weeks to eight.
- The number of classes required to attend per week has been reduced.
- Class session times have been adjusted to end earlier (core hours will be 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.) to allow additional opportunities for students to complete their Project Management Experience component or handle their normal work responsibilities.
This will be the fifth PMLA cohort. The eight-week program will run from May 11 through July 1. Applications will be accepted until 5 p.m. March 11.
“PMLA is open to public-sector workers with limited experience in the field of project management or those with no direct experience who either wish to enter this field or strengthen their foundational skill set in project management,” CDT said. “There are no job classification requirements, and IT and non-IT staff are encouraged to apply. Prospective participants are required to submit a signed CIO Authorization (or equivalent Program Executive) Form as part of their package submission.”
For those who want to see more about PMLA, online videos are available.
PMLA is one of CDT’s four academies specifically developed for the public-sector workforce. The others are the flagship Information Technology Leadership Academy, the Digital Services Innovation Academy and the Information Security Leadership Academy.
