VPMMA: Building Our Future Project Management Workforce

VPMMA: Building Our Future Project Management Workforce

A tremendous project management talent pool exists but is unknown to many: Since every mission or exercise a military leader is tasked with is a temporary endeavor expected to produce unique goods, services or results, this means they have a significant amount of project management experience.An estimated 58% of the 250,000 service members that transition back into the civilian workforce each year are military leaders, i.e. high enough rank to be consistently tasked with projects, meaning we could consider an additional 145,000 experienced individuals a year for our project management roles! However, these PM candidates lack context about the civilian project environment, which presents a unique opportunity for mentorship, professional development and placement of these talented, experienced, proven project managers.Since January 2018, a collaboration between two project management companies has matched experienced PMs from industry with Military and Veteran PMs entering the profession, with astounding results! In just over a year, the Veteran Project Manager Mentor Alliance (VPMMA) has attracted 200+ participants across 29 states and 5 countries, and built partnerships with industry leading organizations such as Arizona State University, International Institute for Learning, Sensei Project Solutions and PM Master Prep.