Project Management Training at the Youth Summit 2017 in Bonn!

The International Association of Project Managers (IAPM) once again offered a training at this year’s Youth Summit. This year 10 young professionals from BASF met 10 young adults from Plant-for-the-Planet coming from Mexico, Germany, Bhutan, Spain, Taiwan and Brazil to learn about the complexity of Project Management. The two trainers proved to be dynamic and flexible while guiding the participants through the workshop. Leading to this exciting meeting are the inspiration and motivation on both sides to work together on climate-friendly projects in the future.

Especially for the young adults there was a lot of new information related to project management to process.

The first day of the training started with a so-called Open Space: after getting to know each other, we collected ideas for projects. All together we had eight ideas, which were then worked on by eight different groups to transform them into real projects. After working on the projects in the morning, we then took a look at the theory behind Project Management. This part of the day consisted of the introduction into the topic and some real life examples from the BASF employees, which helped the youngsters from Plant-for-the-Planet to understand the theory. To end the day, all of the participants went to the city centre to get dinner and talk about the events of the day.

The second day started off with feedback to our trainers, who then changed the concept and the layout of the training to match the individual needs of the group. At this point there is a need of a thank you. Thank you so much for being such flexible trainers and for adjusting the program so everyone was able to follow and to learn something. After having a closer look at the concepts of the two groups, we had a closer look at the projects we worked on the day before. We decided to really focus on the projects that are feasible and threw the other ones out, so we only had three projects left. This way everyone had the feeling of working on something that was worth spending their time on.

But with all the adjusting and working on projects we didn’t forget about the theory. We talked about Stakeholders and were able to apply the things we had just heard, to our projects. The day ended with a presentation of every project in front of the group.

The last day focussed on the presentations of the projects, including every single detail. Felix Finkbeiner made a surprise appearance and contributed to the workshop by talking about the history and the goals of the Plant-for-the-Planet Initiative. This was the start of the end of the training: It was great to see, what the outcome of the three days were: Three feasible concepts named Linked Trees, Mexacad and Linked Funding. Linked Trees is all about including older ambassadors for climate justice as mentors for younger kids. Mexacad concentrates on the organization of academies in Mexico – one academy per week. Linked Funding – the name almost says it all – is all about a better way to find funding for Plant-for-the-Planet, especially on an international level, with the help of portals like Betterplace.

The day ended with a group photo and the confidence to implement the projects.

We want to thank the employees from BASF, you really helped us with your knowledge and your experience. Also thank you to the Trainers, you were flexible and happy to change the program to our best interests. Now the young adults are able to get their certificates as Junior Project Manager – Exciting!

Marieke Petersen