4 January 2016

Costain’s Jim Morrison is helping senior military officers, civil servants and business leaders hone their project management skills at Cranfield University.

Jim, a Costain Director, speaks every year to students on Cranfield’s prestigious three-year part-time MSc in Programme and Project Management. He is one of just two external speakers invited to take part in the first course module, which is designed to extend students’ knowledge and skills and so help them come up with creative solutions to previously unsolved problems.

“My involvement began after I met a Cranfield lecturer at a defence event in London five years ago,” says Jim, whose background includes time in both the defence and rail industries. “Since then I spend a couple of days every year speaking to the MSc’s new intake. I don’t so much deliver lectures as talk about my experiences and observations, and show the students how what they learn on the course works in the real world. That includes showing them case studies of what has worked well - and not so well - in some of the projects I’ve been involved with.”

It is, he says, a great way to promote the Costain name to senior professionals from a range of sectors. But it’s also proved a useful learning experience for Jim.

“There’s always plenty of discussion with the students, and I encourage them to talk about their experiences. That gives me valuable insight into what other people do, and also allows me to find out about areas of, for example, the defence sector that I might not have experienced myself.”

He added: “It’s also a good opportunity to talk to faculty members and discover what is happening in the academic world in regard to programme and project management, as well as the latest developments elsewhere in industry.”

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