Haaga-Helia takes the win in the National Project Management Championships final

Once again students across the nation competed against each other in the field of project management. Six teams made it through the qualification round in the national final which was hosted by IPMA Young Crew Finland. Once again Haaga-Helia took the win with an exceptional performance in the competition.

The international IPMA Project Management Championship, the PMC, is a competition for students studying in Universities and Universities of Applied Sciences. The aim of the competition is to promote networking between young project professionals and to increase the interaction between academic institutions and businesses. This year the national final was held on 5th of May in Espoo. Six teams from Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences, Savonia University of Applied Sciences and Seinäjoki University of Applied Sciences gave their best shot in the competition.  The win, and place in the International Competition, was secured by PowerPuff Project Managers from Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences.  Members of the winning team were Marinka Essel, Katalina Kivinen and Huong Doan.

In this year’s competition case the teams were appointed as the project manager of a supplier company with the task of renewing an electricity substation near the Kesäkumpu village center for a customer. This task was completed for the second time in a row by using a project simulation game Project Business Game (PBG) provided by one of the PMC-partners, LessonLab. PBG allows you to model different projects into a game format for learning tasks. The game simulates e.g., the realization and impact of different risks, explores dependencies, compares different design and implementation approaches, and includes investment and cost accounting. Besides the performance in the PBG-game the judges evaluated teamwork, how well the teams introduced themselves and reflection of the team’s own performance.

Judges in this year’s competition were President of IPMA Young Crew Finland, Elsa Paasilinna, The Chair of the board of Project Professionals Association Taina Rämö-Korpinen and co-founder of the LessonLab Jere Lehtinen. The final member of the jury Virpi Elers and the case for the final was provided by a PMC-partner Kumura Oy.

Choosing the winner was not an easy task for the jury as all the teams gave an excellent performance and succeeded in different areas. In the end the winning team was chosen based on their excellent preparations for the competition, clear and entertaining performance, and their seamless teamwork. The winning team had a clear drive for succeeding in the competition.

-  It was an intense competition today at the Finnish nationals and I still can’t believe our team won! Thank you, Katalina Kivinen and Huong Doan, for being the best teammates I could ask for! I am looking forward to meeting and competing against other top project management professionals from around the world, comments winning teams’ Marinka Essel.

Besides gaining an amazing experience and glory, the winning team gets to represent Finland in the International IPMA Project Management Championship Final in Valencia, Spain next month. There the winning team gets to compete against other teams from all over the world. In addition to that, the winning team gets a chance to get certified with the internationally known IPMA Level D-certification.

Congratulations for the Powerpuff Project Managers and best of luck for the international final!

The PMC competition, which has grown internationally, has been developed in Finland by PRY's Young Crew. The Young Crew is a network of project professionals and those interested to become one under the age of 35-years. The Young Crew Finland is part of the Project Professionals Association (PRY).

Teksti ja kuvat: Jonna Vuorenpää