The Engineering Construction Industry Training Board has launched a dedicated e-learning academy to help current and aspiring project managers develop the skills needed to deliver complex engineering construction projects.
The Project Management Steering Group Academy, hosted on the ECITB’s Learning Experience Platform, includes 27 courses aligned with the Association for Project Management’s Project Management Competency Framework.
The academy has been developed for people working across the engineering construction industry, where major energy, infrastructure, offshore and industrial programmes depend heavily on effective project leadership, planning and controls.
Its content is intended to support professionals at different stages of their careers, from employees moving into project roles for the first time to experienced managers looking to refresh or broaden their knowledge.
The platform is being introduced in two phases, allowing the ECITB and its industry-led Project Management Steering Group to expand and refine the content as further skills gaps are identified.
Courses structured around project management competencies
The first phase of the academy includes courses across four areas within the APM competency framework:
- People and behaviours
- Planning and managing deployment
- Preparing for change
- Setting up for success
The content was selected from more than 30,000 courses available through the ECITB’s Learning Experience Platform.
A working group made up of Project Management Steering Group members, industry professionals and representatives from the ECITB’s platform team assessed the available material and identified courses considered most relevant to engineering construction project delivery.
The selected content was then peer reviewed to ensure it was practical, accessible and aligned with recognised project management standards.
David Manson, Business Manager at Altrad Sparrows and chair of the working group, said the academy would help address the lack of a consistent development route into project management.
“Project management as a discipline is something that some people move into without formal coaching or a common career path,” he said.
“There’s a wide breadth to the role of being a project manager, so it’s valuable to share knowledge and tools to help raise awareness of what the different skills entail.”
Although the academy does not provide a formal qualification, Manson said it could support new entrants while also helping established project managers reaffirm existing knowledge.
Industry professionals test the content
A group of 12 employees from offshore engineering and services company Subsea7 reviewed the academy’s course content before launch.
The group included graduates, mid-career professionals and senior project managers with up to ten years of experience, allowing the material to be assessed from several career perspectives.
Craig Bean, a project manager at Subsea7, said the flexibility of the platform made the training easier to incorporate into an already demanding role.
“As a project manager, it can be difficult to find time for training and development,” he said.
“The LXP’s bite-sized modules were easy to access, and I was able to fit these into my week without having to re-arrange my calendar.”
He added that the platform provided an opportunity to revisit areas of project management that experienced professionals may not have studied recently.
The review process found the content to be engaging, intuitive and relevant to the practical needs of people working on projects across the engineering construction sector.
Building on growing demand for flexible training
The ECITB launched its Learning Experience Platform in January 2023 to give eligible employers access to thousands of online learning courses at no direct cost.
Workers from 195 engineering construction employers have since completed more than 140,000 courses through the platform, generating what the ECITB estimates to be more than £5 million in added value for the industry.
The Project Management Steering Group Academy builds on that existing digital infrastructure by creating a curated pathway specifically for project professionals.
Employers will be able to use the academy for self-directed development, structured learning programmes and project or role-specific onboarding.
Matt Knights, ECITB Director of Regional Operations, said strengthening project management capability was essential to improving industry performance.
“Ensuring the industry is equipped with skilled project managers is vital to ensure projects are completed on time, within budget and to the expected quality of work,” he said.
“The PMSG Academy will prove a valuable information resource for project professionals at all levels in the ECI.”
Access will initially be limited to employers within the ECITB’s scope, although the organisation hopes the academy can eventually be made available to the wider industry.
Wider project management development
The academy forms part of a broader programme led by the Project Management Steering Group to improve project delivery capability across engineering construction.
The industry-led group brings together employers and professional bodies to share good practice and develop targeted interventions around competence, leadership and delivery performance.
It already supports initiatives including the ECITB’s Project Management Mentoring Programme, its Chartered Project Professional development programme and the annual Project Management Conference.
The academy adds a flexible digital learning option to those more structured development routes.
Project management perspective
The launch reflects a persistent challenge across project-based industries: many capable professionals enter project management through technical, engineering or operational roles without following a defined development pathway.
That experience can produce strong practical leaders, but it can also lead to inconsistent capability across areas such as governance, stakeholder management, planning, commercial awareness and change control.
A competency-based academy provides a way to make those expectations more visible and give employers a common reference point for development.
Aligning the content with the APM framework is particularly important. Rather than presenting project management as a narrow set of scheduling and reporting techniques, the academy recognises the wider combination of behavioural, organisational and delivery skills required to lead complex work successfully.
The phased approach is also a sensible programme design choice. Launching an initial set of courses and then adapting the offer in response to emerging needs allows the ECITB to test engagement, gather user feedback and direct further investment towards genuine capability gaps.
However, access to content alone will not automatically improve project performance. Organisations will need to connect learning with roles, career pathways and practical experience. Managers should understand which competencies are required at different levels and create opportunities for employees to apply new knowledge in live project environments.
There is also an important distinction between course completion and competence. Digital modules can introduce concepts and refresh knowledge, but capability is demonstrated through decision-making, leadership and performance under real delivery conditions.
The academy is therefore likely to have the greatest impact when used alongside mentoring, professional accreditation, workplace assessment and structured development planning.
For project leaders, the initiative offers a practical model for addressing industry-wide skills challenges. By curating existing learning resources around an agreed competency framework, the ECITB has created a scalable platform that can support both individual development and organisational capability building.
Its longer-term value will depend on whether employers use it as more than a training library and instead integrate it into how project professionals are recruited, developed, deployed and prepared for increasingly complex engineering construction programmes.
