This year, PMI Educational Foundation (PMIEF) has announced an additional seven new partnerships with some of the world��s leading youth-serving non-profit organizations to make its mission of empowering young people with foundational project management skills a reality. The new 2023 PMIEF grant recipients span the globe, from the Middle East to Africa to Ukraine. This year’s grantees are: INJAZ AI-Arab/JA MENA, Junior Achievement Worldwide, INJAZ Jordan Future Problem Solving Program International (FPSPI)™, and Special Olympics International (SOI). Additionally, PMIEF is expanding its current partnership with the F1 in Schools® program and African Leadership Academy to continue to build on the success of these programs.
Research from Accenture indicates that 79% of executives agree the future of work will be based more on specific projects than roles, so young people who have the know how to successfully manage projects will be best positioned to excel in their future careers. Working with PMIEF, these non-profits integrate these in-demand project management skills into their STEM, entrepreneurial, or social impact programming and curricula so that the young people participating can apply these newfound skills to be more successful. In the long term, project management skills can help these young people be more strategic, organized, and collaborative professional partners and leaders.
“These organizations have an impressive record of positively impacting young lives and helping them chart their own courses and adding exposure to project management skills will help further this impact,” said Olivier Lazar, Chief Operating Officer at PMIEF and Vice President for Youth & Social Impact at Project Management Institute. “It’s setting young people up for academic, professional, and personal success. I’m confident these partnerships will not only make a difference in their individual lives but also in their ability to drive positive social impact around the world well into the future."
The 2023 PMIEF grantees are:
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INJAZ Jordan: A leading solutions provider that links the public, private, and civil sectors, INJAZ Jordan helps to bridge the skills gap between the educational system and the changing needs of the labor market. PMIEF previously funded INJAZ from 2016-2017 and the new grant will build on the previous work by supporting the integration of project management principles into their programs and trainings including educating more than 200,000 youth and an additional 200 teachers and 3,800 volunteers.
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INJAZ Al-Arab: INJAZ Al-Arab, the fastest growing organization in MENA for business education that reaches over 760K youth annually to harness the mentorship of business leaders to help inspire a culture of entrepreneurship and business innovation among Arab youth. Through the grant from PMIEF, INJAZ Al-Arab will reach another 147,980 middle, high school and university MENA youth by incorporating project management skills into their annual capstone program focusing on applied business skills and project management, a series of virtual learning experiences to empower Arab youth in high school, and innovation day camps focusing on entrepreneurship.
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Junior Achievement Worldwide (JA): Recently nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize, JA delivers hands on, immersive learning in work readiness, financial health, entrepreneurship, sustainability, STEM, economics, and more and reaches over 15 million students across the globe via its network of over 340 local offices in 115 countries. With its broad reach, JA is uniquely positioned to help accelerate the number of youths exposed to project management training at both the regional and global levels.
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Future Problem Solving Program International (FPSPI)™: FPSPI helps young people design and achieve positive outcomes and futures through problem solving using critical and creative thinking. With support from the PMIEF grant, FPSPI will expose over 20,000 youth to foundational project management knowledge and skills.
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Special Olympics International (SOI): As one of SOI’s most important country programs in the Europe Eurasia region, Special Olympics (SO) Ukraine has developed one of the strongest regional network structures in the Special Olympics movement, which enabled it to reach more than 15,000 athletes and youth with intellectual disabilities and volunteers across the country. However, the war in Ukraine has dismantled these regional networks, with almost all regional coordinators either fleeing the country or moving to safer regions of the country to escape violence. Through the partnership with PMIEF, SO Ukraine will work with an organization named Reigniting Inclusion Across Ukraine to train staff, coaches and athletes on program management and rebuild inclusive youth programming across Ukraine.
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F1 in Schools®: Through the previous grant from PMIEF, project management has become an integral and assessed part of the F1 in Schools global competition. However, this grant will build on this by engaging additional students in learning project management through the Global Competition, a new E-Learning Platform, and F1 in Schools Primary Class for youth ages 9 - 11.
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African Leadership Academy (ALA): PMIEF’s partnership with ALA introduces high-potential youth across Africa to project management through their BUILD-in-a-Box curriculum, which challenges students to lead an entrepreneurial bootcamp in their home community. As students prepare to lead their bootcamp, they will receive project management training. They then put their new project management skills into action as they form teams and create the training they will lead their peers through.
About Project Management Institute (PMI)
Project Management Institute (PMI) is the leading professional organization for project management, and the authority for a growing global community of millions of project professionals and individuals who use project management skills. Collectively, these professionals and "changemakers" consistently create better outcomes for businesses, community and society worldwide.
PMI empowers people to make ideas a reality. Through global advocacy, networking, collaboration, research, and education, PMI prepares organizations and individuals at every stage of their career journey to work smarter so they can drive success in a world of change.
Building on a proud legacy dating to 1969, PMI is a not-for-profit for-purpose organization working in nearly every country around the world to advance careers, strengthen organizational success, and enable project professionals and changemakers with new skills and ways of working to maximize their impact. PMI offerings include globally recognized standards, certifications, online courses, thought leadership, tools, digital publications, and communities.
About PMI Educational Foundation
PMI Educational Foundation (PMIEF) is a 501(c)(3) supporting organization of Project Management Institute (PMI), the world's leading not-for-profit professional membership association for those who consider project, program, or portfolio management their profession. Founded in 1990, PMIEF cultivates long-term relationships with nonprofits across the globe to help them integrate project management into their youth programs and to build their own project management capacity. The Foundation achieves its mission to “enable youth to realize their potential and transform lives through project management” and its vision for “inspiring youth to achieve their goals, making dreams a reality” by investing in high-quality organizations that exemplify a commitment to preparing young people for 21st century success and an appreciation for both the societal application and value of project management. Visit PMIEF.org for more information.