The VA
Acquisition
Academy
offers
courses for
certification
By Paula Aragon
Public Affairs
The Raymond G. Murphy Medical Center
hosts the FY20 courses in Program and
Project Management to 19 students, with 16
of the students who are local to this facility
and three who traveled from other facilities. “I’ve seen the need for project management
skills when we try and implement
acquisitions, which is why I have confidence
this training will be invaluable to this
facility.”
“It is very difficult for us to take two to three
weeks off of work to complete this training,
and even harder if we need to travel to
another site,” said Nicole Chilson, Chief of
Supply Chain Management. The training is good for five years, but the
certification requires that the students have
one year of experience with project
management tasks. The targeted audience
for this training is entry-level personnel that
have a need for project management skills
within the Federal civilian agencies.
Those who attended the entry level course,
which consisted of two weeks of instruction
in the Acquisition Fundamentals of Project
and Program Management and Federal
Acquisition Corps-P/PM Resident Course,
were immersed in the fundamentals.
The participants who took this course will be
able to support projects that occur within
their service and will be able to accomplish
them with some supervision and support
from other program/project management
personnel.
This valuable training is relevant to anyone
that is involved with making changes that
incorporates a new process, technology, or
acquisition. The students will learn to
recognize and dentify the requirements to
implement change, while considering a
multitude of factors that will result in a
successful project.
Entry-level project managers in the Federal
sector will need to manage a small project
or participate as an effective member of an
integrated project team to receive
certification. Upon successful completion of
the course, they will clearly understand how
to fulfill entry level program/project
management obligations. The Federal
Acquisition Certification for Program and
Project Managers demonstrates a level of
proficiency and skill level that is relevant
across the federal government.
“We are doing the best thing we can for our
organization by training our own staff to be
better prepared for making the changes
necessary to improve the services and
support we provide for our Veterans,” said
Chilson. “This is very relevant to creating a
High Reliability Organization.”