Project Management

It takes a skilled team of joiners, plumbers, electricians, heating engineers, architects and surveyors to construct a building BUT...have you ever wondered who’s running the show?

The Project Manager is that person. (You know, the one Sir Alan Sugar always fires on The Apprentice!)

They require an ability to see projects through from start to finish, good time keeping and a sharp eye for finances. These qualities are essential as you don’t want your project ending up like the Scottish Parliament, which opened three years late and way over budget! Although they are essentially an authority figure, the project manager must also be a team player. Remember that long list of workers I mentioned earlier? You have to interact with all of them regularly, and you might not always have good news to give them!

The construction industry is massive, employing one in ten working people in the U.K.! The Project manager is the main man or woman, in control of the many activities that the construction industry involves.

Bob Turnbull is Company Director of CRGP Architects, a prestigious firm that have worked on projects such as the (extremely swanky) Italian Centre in Glasgow city centre. According to Bob an average day can involve meeting with contractors, predicting the cost of a project and drawing up contracts. Bob also stresses the importance of ‘learning on the job’. New starts at CRGP often spend three and a half days with them and another one and half at college, and even at that level you can expect to make up to £9,000 a year!

If that sounds like an opportunity you can’t afford to miss, YOZILA reader, then you should take a look at Glasgow Caledonian University, and their Construction Management course. http://www.gcu.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/courses/construction-management-9099.php?loc=uk

Or Glasgow Met and their HNC in the same subject http://www.glasgowmet.ac.uk/construction-management.aspx

Glasgow is the perfect location to live life as a project manager. I strolled down the Clyde side recently and seen the Science Centre, the SECC Armadillo, the Clyde Arc (otherwise known as the ‘squinty bridge’) and the BBC’s new headquarters-all examples of the exciting, modern architecture characteristic of the city. Plus the Commonwealth Games take place here in 2014, so there’s plenty of work needing done in the next few years!

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