Supernova visiting a Cala
Just returned from a week in sunny Palma on the island of Majorca, a beautiful (and currently expensive) island with some great marinas and calas. We were fortunate enough to spend the week on a Broom 50 power yacht, visiting hidden away beaches and speeding around the coastlines. At the end of each day, glass of wine in hand, we got talking to the skipper about life in the island and specifically about life working in the marina. One of the things the skipper company get alot of are people wandering around the marina looking for work, to become a skipper, responsible for taking people out for the day or moving boats from other countries to the island. It’s definitely an exciting and exhilarating job and it was a joy to listen to some of the stories of the old salty sea dogs and their adventures!
No doubt it’s a dangerous job too and we got talking about the credentials of good skippers – and just how do they hire new people to their team? Job seekers often come armed with their RYA Yachtmaster qualifications, proud as punch that they’ve passed with flying colours (and not to mention a few quid down in their pockets), raring to go with a life on the high seas.
Know where I’m going with this??
Automatically the skipper team lose interest and politely turn them away – why? Lack of practical experience, lack of real life man hours out there on the ocean, a novice in terms of the unpredictability of the high seas and the lack of tried and tested risk management techniques when taking into account your own safety and that of your clients and the boat.
Enter stage left, project management qualifications like PRINCE2, how many times have we heard something similar to the above scenario? Newly qualified PRINCE2 Practitioner (or even Foundation level) waving their certificate like they’ve won the last golden ticket, raring to go and brimming with enthusiasm only to find the door closed on them.
So how do the skipper company find their next generation of employees if they’re turning away the newly qualified with lack of practical experience , isn’t this a case of chicken and egg? How do I gain the experience if you’re not willing to give me a chance? The newly qualified, “trying to get into project management” bunch of folks also have the same problem, so what’s the solution?
The skipper company give the advice that the newly qualified need to gain experience as part of a crew, learning the ropes on many man hours of sailing, being part of a team with specific responsibilities but being directed by an experienced skipper. It’s exactly the same with project management, the newly qualified need to seek out the opportunities to first work in a project environment before expecting to be able to run the show as PM. See the previous post from Josh on “New to Project Management”. The newly qualified Yachtmaster needs to have the opportunity to put into practice all their new skills safely too, luckily project management isn’t generally as dangerous a place as the ocean in which to practice (not unless you count the sharks / stakeholders who circle at the first whiff of blood). With a mentor on hand, the newly qualified can learn through trial and error, drawing on the mentor’s previous experience and lessons learnt, tactics that can be used by both new yachtmasters and project managers alike.
One thing I did learn and was particularly pleased about was that in the skipper world practical experience is perceived to be the most important factor in a successful skipper, way and above the need for certification, in fact many of the old pro’s haven’t even bothered to get their RYA. I certainly can understand that reasoning and recently when talking to an older project manager recently who’s gripe was suddently he needs to go on a PRINCE2 course to get a look in with new opportunities, I can’t help thinking we’re getting something wrong in our project management community. Can we look beyond the badges and talk about the real practical experience please, the stuff that really matters when delivering projects and programmes?
This and Josh’s post are excellent thank you. It puts into perspective that while people may have the right qualifications they often lack experience! Well written Lindsay.
Ron Rosenhead
I have completed several sailing courses. While I lack significant practical experience, I now have enough knowledge and experience to carry on a reasonable conversation and work as a hand on sailing boat. I understand the basic safety requirements that keep people alive on the water. Prior to this training, I would not have been a good team member. I didn’t share a common language, understanding of tradition, or have an embedded knowledge of safety features.
This debate of certification vs experience is not productive. There is very little basis for claiming that developing a common language, process baseline, and learning framework is not useful. All bodies of knowledge grow from building a common view of the skills, principles, and practices that prove most effective.
Certification creates a baseline of common knowledge to build from and this is useful. Certification is not a substitute for experience – I know of no organization that claims this. If I am hiring a project manager for the crew, I want to know that they have this baseline.
Experience is required to become a professional. Most people claim 10,000 hours of application and focus on improvement is necessary. This type of experience is necessary to be successful in a skipper role.