Global Project and Change Management

Project and change management is a booming profession. Some international rankings make project management one of the top careers for the twenty-first century.

The world faces big challenges. What are we going to do about the increasing divide between rich and poor? About global warming? Or diseases that cross borders more easily than ever before? To tackle such enormous challenges, businesses, governments and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) need to work together. Project managers have an important role in that. They need to be able to plan, design and implement projects that reduce complex issues to manageable proportions and provide solutions.

To be a good project manager, you need to be able to work in a wide variety of settings, with people from different professional backgrounds. That means learning skills such as communicating in different styles, dealing with cultural differences and diversity, planning and budgeting, and providing leadership. Most important of all, it means really knowing yourself, your strengths and shortcomings, your values and ambitions. Only then can you add value for others.

As a project and change manager, you'll be the linchpin of a team. You'll be guiding the team in the right direction, providing feedback and always evaluating the process and the team's work. The way our programme is set up means you'll be working mainly within the triangle of NGOs, business and government. That might involve working within one of the sectors, or being like a spider at the centre of its web, liaising with all three to make a project work. An NGO is a charity, association or social enterprise that is independent of government and business, whereas a business is a commercial organization that tries to make a profit. After you graduate, you'll be qualified to work on issues such as ageing of populations, new forms of government and urban problems, e.g. how to make good use of empty buildings. As a project manager, it'll be your responsibility to lead a project team towards a solution.
Project management provides organizations with the knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to plan and execute projects on time and within budget.

After graduating, you can start your career for example as a:

• Project manager/advisor at international NGOs like Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders
• Project manager in slave-free clothing or food industry
• Project manager for businesses aiming to introduce sustainable production
• Project manager/advisor with governments or political institutions
• Communication advisor on healthy lifestyles with an insurance company
• Project manager reducing food waste in cities or at large popular events
• Advisor for local farmers to promote imperfect food rejected by large grocery stores
• Advisor improving communication on scientific results on Global Warming (IPCC)
• Advisor improving Corporate Sustainability, for example Coca Cola with Coca Cola Green
• Advisor on Corporate Social Responsibility with TOMS Shoes
• Social entrepreneur 

Instead of going straight into a job, you might want to continue your education after you graduate. If you'd like to do a Master's degree in the field of international sustainable development, talk to your career counsellor. He or she will go over the options with you. WHC has a strong network of contacts in other universities and expertise in lots of different fields. So we can give you good advice and help you make the right decision. About 80 per cent of our students do Master's courses after graduating from WHC.