India’s sustainable development goals have created massive demand for new infrastructure—both physical and digital. Government initiatives such as Make in India, Smart Cities and Digital India are designed to encourage investment in long-term economic growth, job creation and global competitiveness for the nation of 1.3 billion people.

Meeting these objectives will require spending an estimated $1.5 trillion USD on engineering and construction over the next decade. It also means that India will need to train millions of project management professionals. According to the worldwide Project Management Institute (PMI), there is a serious shortage of project managers in India.

“At the current rate of growth, India requires 700,000 more project managers every year for the next 10 years,” states PMI in a recent study¹. “Today there are only 100,000 certified professionals across the country.”

Oracle Academy-Provided Software Helps Train Women Students

That challenge creates high demand for training. Some higher education institutions have discovered a cost-effective way to teach students project management with industry leading tools—by using Primavera Professional Project Management software licensed to Oracle Academy institutional members as part of their membership.

In New Delhi, Lady Irwin College uses Primavera to prepare young women for careers in planning and scheduling roads, railways, digital networks, water, power, and waste management systems and other backbones of infrastructure.

“Primavera gives our students hands-on training and direct application to live projects and programs,” says Dr. Rachna Dhingra of the Resource Management and Design Application (RMDA) department.

Lady Irwin College is a women’s constituent college of the University of Delhi. Female students following the four-year Master’s course are mostly graduates of the Lady Irwin Home Science curriculum. The RMDA curriculum comprises space and product design, environment management and, in the second semester, project management, in which students learn Primavera Planning and Scheduling.

Students Get Passionate about Project Management

Initially Dr. Dhingra and her colleague, Dr. Puja Gupta, taught project management using textbooks and blackboards. But five years ago they were introduced to Primavera by Dr. Kuldip Chander, former head of Building Engineering and Management at the School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi. Dr. Chander proposed that Lady Irwin should apply to Oracle Academy for a software license as an institutional member—and he trained faculty how to teach project management effectively using Primavera.

“It was highly enriching to be trained in the best methods for getting students passionate about project management,” says Dr. Gupta. “It breaks the monotony of the blackboard and makes the teaching-learning process more effective.”

“The software helps in developing a better understanding of the concepts, principles and techniques of project management,” says Dr. Dhingra. “Students learn to make activity charts, network diagrams and critical path method techniques, applying them to real projects.”

Hands-on Projects Help Differentiate in the Job Market

Lady Irwin collaborates with the Forum for Air Quality and the Indian Pollution Control Association on projects to combat air pollution in Delhi. Strategic initiatives such as the Clean and Healthy Air Management Programme allow the students to both learn and apply Primavera. “When it comes to job interviews, they are able to showcase real projects with meaningful results,” says Dr. Gupta. “By providing proof points for their skills, authenticated through certificates, they are able to differentiate themselves—and that gives them a definite edge.”

Students are assessed throughout the semester, which culminates in a six-hour practical exam supervised by an external examiner from a university or organization that uses Primavera for project management. “We have a strong network within industry which provides us with internships and final placements for our students,” says Dr. Gupta. “Feedback shows that industry companies recognize the added advantage of our ladies having followed Primavera methodology. We fill a gap where many universities have no project management curriculum.”

Lady Irwin College is dedicated to training women for jobs, especially jobs involving computer science skills. This strategy fits tightly with the government’s Skill India initiative to empower women. By collaborating with educators and offering high-value educational resources, including Primavera software licenses, Oracle Academy helps the college train the skilled minds needed to plan and schedule the tremendous volume of government mega-development infrastructure projects in the 21st century.

¹Project Management Job Growth and Talent Gap Report // 2017-2027, Project Management Institute https://www.pmi.org/-/media/pmi/documents/public/pdf/learning/job-growth-report.pdf