bp today announced the successful completion of its yet another capacity-building project for local universities. The project aimed to further strengthen project management skills and capabilities across several higher educational institutions, Azernews reports, citing bp.

bp selected this project as an expansion to a similar educational programme through which bp and its co-venturers had previously supported the training and build up of project management teams in 15 local universities.

The objective of this follow up project was to further strengthen the universities’ project management capacity by training additional resources - students as well as the teaching staff.

During the 14 months (November 2021- January 2023) of its duration the project trained 95 students and 123 staff members representing eight higher educational institutions: the Azerbaijan University of Tourism and Management, the Azerbaijan State University of Economics, the Azerbaijan Technical University, Baku Engineering University, the Azerbaijan State Oil and Industry University, the Academy of Public Administration, the Azerbaijan University of Architecture and Construction, and the National Aviation Academy.

The participating students had 120 hours of training and based on their graduation results 64 of them – those with the best scores, received level D certificates from IPMA (the International Project Management Association), a world leader in assessment of project managers. Level D is one of the four degrees of IPMA assessment. Some 28 students were awarded local certificates by AzPMA (the Azerbaijan Project Management Association).

In addition, a 52-hour academic course on project management was developed as part of the project and 19 teachers representing all participating universities were trained to teach this course effectively at their universities.

The project scope also included subject matter consultations for all the eight universities to support them in establishing their own university-based project management offices.

The project, which cost 209,703 AZN ($123,355), was implemented by AzPMA.