The Exhibit summarizes the main features of the three forms of project management education and training considered here.

Top-tier consulting firms have the highest formal educational requirements, requiring an excellent advanced degree (e.g., MBA, PhD) in addition to consistently demonstrating superior analytical skills in multiple rounds of interviews.  Academic project management degree programs typically require at least a bachelor’s or master’s degree with an overall grade of “good.”  To be eligible to take the Project Management Professional (PMP)^® certification exam from the Project Management Institute (PMI), you must have at least a bachelor’s degree with an overall grade of “passing” and at least 36 months/3 years of project leadership and management experience within the last eight years, or a high school diploma or completed vocational training with at least 60 months/5 years of project leadership and management experience within the last eight years.

The skills typically developed at university, in general and regardless of the subject studied, are very helpful for project management and certainly provide a good foundation for further relevant training and education.  For example, Hurcum (2021) lists the following five skill areas: communication, budgeting and money management, time management, critical thinking and problem solving, and dealing with and accepting constructive criticism.

In terms of practical experience, the Project Management Certification with a minimum of 36 months places the highest demands on the experience already available at the beginning of the training or education.  However, it is critical to note that, as mentioned in another blog post, the verification of practical project management experience seems to be handled quite laxly.  No further proof of practical project work is required for recertification.  Practical experience is not essential to join a top-tier consulting firm, but training and education are closely intertwined with day-to-day project work.  The Project Management Certificate, as mentioned above, requires a certain amount of relevant work experience, while the top-tier consulting firms require this experience to be acquired experience through the program. Only the academic project management degree programs typically do not require any work experience or require only limited practical application of course content in the capstone course and some assignments.  Even to obtain the PMI-PMP^® certificate through the project management degree program at Colorado State University Global (CSU Global) (n.d.), the practical work requirements are greatly reduced, with a significant portion of the program itself being credited by PMI as practical experience.

All in all, the approach of the top-management consultancies is the most sensible in terms of admission requirements.  The classification and reflection as well as the application of theoretical knowledge based on personal experience in project practice are very important; after all, this is how understanding is deepened, meaningful behavior is practiced, and one’s own performance is subjected to criticism by colleagues and superiors.  To a certain extent, this is possible in the context of a retrospective view of past experiences, but it is not possible to practice newly learned behaviors and methods.  In this respect, practical work during or after project management training is much more important than before.  When designing education and training programs in project management, it makes sense to assume that applicants have good relevant skills and to require evidence of this—whether this necessarily requires a university degree is an open question.  Among other things, this can be used to draw conclusions about basic aptitude for project management.  Practical experience should accompany the teaching of theoretical knowledge but is not a requirement for an excellent training and further education concept.  In addition, interviews at top consultancies are much more helpful than academic degrees and grades in determining the extent to which the candidate already meets the specific requirements of a management consultant or project manager or has the potential to develop into such a role.