Haaga-Helia students Ekaterina Zhegalina, Hans Kärtner, Obisesa Abiodun and Sharon Cristell Quispe Cahuapoma won the national University Students Project Management Championship [PMC] of 2020. In addition to Haaga-Helia, the teams of Vaasa University of Applied Sciences and Turku University of Applied Sciences were on the podium.

The purpose of this annual competition is to inspire, encourage and increase students’ interest in project management and project business. The aim of the competition is to promote networking between young project professionals and to increase interaction between academia and business.

Project management skills give students the foundation to manage and work on projects in their future careers in business. Even more broadly, it opens up a more general understanding of what it means to lead research and development projects and teams. Students who invest in learning project management are able to work systematically and consistently. What would be better than to take this as a competitive edge and stand out from other job seekers.

The winning concept

In the final, students were given the task of planning an office relocation project. The solution had to consider among other things, the requirements of the new office’s functions and the number of staff, as well as the relocation schedule. The teams were expected to have a clear project plan for the jury and a smooth presentation of their solution.

All the teams worked smoothly in the online environment and utilized various remote working opportunities in different ways to complete the task. However, the winning team was finally distinguished by their clear and trustworthy performance, smooth cooperation between team members and good utilization of the basics of project management competences in their solution.

“I am very proud of the team’s performance today, and grateful for how valuable learning experience we got in the competition,” commented the winning team’s Hans Kärtner. As a whole, the team felt that the competition task allowed them to learn from each other, put project management skills into practice and work under pressure on a tight schedule. The team from Haaga-Helia considered their strengths to be the diversity from their international backgrounds and effective co-operation. “The task sparked good discussions and we managed to make the required decisions as a team in good spirits,” said Ekaterina Zhegalina of her team’s strengths.

As a cherry on the top, the winning team will represent Finland in the International IPMA Project Management Championship in June. There the team’s skills are measured against teams from all around the world. In addition, winners will have the opportunity to complete the International Project Management IPMA Level D Certificate.