Our Approach to project and Programme Management

Cranefield College believes in quality tertiary education where students and their employers are the core focus of everything. Our courses look to teach the student how to not only manage the organisation as a whole but also to manage the value chain which is at the heart of an organisation.

By focusing on cross functionality in a business, employers and project managers alike can ensure they are getting the best performance out of their employees through employee empowerment and involvement.

How we work at cranefield college

Cranefield follows an outcomes-based adult learning approach in its teaching and learning, using both theory and case material. This approach enables continuous transformation and change and ensures improved performance.
This results in enhanced communication skills and integration of operations, applying a systems approach.

Core
Values

We believe in education excellence, student leadership development and excellent service delivery. “If you want to be successful, you have to structure your organisation cross-functionally, and this means paradigms as well,“ says Principal and Founder of Cranefield College, Professor Pieter Steyn.

EVOLVING TRENDS IN PROJECT MANAGEMENT

PRINCIPAL’S MESSAGE

Cranefield principal, Professor Pieter Steyn comes from a long line of industrial engineers, most notably, Steyn’s great, great grandfather, Douwe Gerbrandtz Steyn, who designed the Castle of Good Hope in 1679.

“I think project management will always play a role and is probably one of the oldest professions that exist today,” says Professor Pieter Steyn, Principal of Cranefield College. “There is nothing you can do without it. “

The building of the Cape of Good Hope Castle, “was one of the first major project management projects, and the family is still in it today.”

Before studying Engineering, Professor Steyn did an apprenticeship in a mill machinery company and became a qualified millwright. “But it was a toss-up for me: was I going to go the mechanical route, the electrical route or the industrial engineering route?”

Professor Steyn’s decision to take on Industrial Engineering was due to his interest in project management and he liked how ‘visible’ project management was in industrial engineering.

To date, Professor Steyn has been at the helm of countless project management ventures such as becoming the director and founder of Steyn & Van Rensburg consultants which continues to do well despite him retiring 25 years ago.

Professor Steyn has project managed countless building and engineering projects over his expansive career. Notable projects include Nelson Mandela Square in Sandton, Bank City in Johannesburg, the Old Wheel Shopping Centre in Durban and Game City in Berea.

What ‘Prof’ has to say about courses at cranefield college

Professor Steyn emphasises the need for a foundation in project management which allows the student to implement strategies into context later on in life.

“The courses are crucial if you want a foundation and provide a very good grounding in project management that can aid you to become a project management professional.”

“If you look at where project management started, which is in the building and engineering industry and where it is heading, new millennium organisations are transforming and moving away from the old bureaucracies to what we know as the knowledge-based learning organisations,” he says.