Auckland DHB, Waitematā DHB and Counties Manukau Health have joined forces with the University of Auckland’s Faculty of Engineering to develop a master’s programme designed to meet a health project management shortage.
The Master of Engineering Project Management endorsed in Health (MEPM – Health) is an extension of the university’s existing Master of Engineering Project Management and incorporates courses from the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences on health system organisation and leadership.
“Strong project management skills specific to the health sector are critical to our ability to deliver the health facilities needed by the region over the next 15 years,” said Mark Harris, manager Regional Capital Programme, Northern Regional Alliance.
“While DHBs are committed to delivering their capital investment programmes, the lack of experienced project managers could make it harder to provide the facilities and infrastructure needed so health services can continue to meet the growing needs of our population.”
There is a national shortage of construction project managers across various industries. Factors contributing to this include a lack of training in specialist areas, such as health project management, and Covid-19 border restrictions which have meant skilled project managers aren’t coming from overseas.
The MEPM-H will give graduates with at least two years relevant work experience access into specialist health-related infrastructure project management.
Supporting the MEPM-H programme is the Centre of Excellence – Health Infrastructure (CEHI) – an internship programme initiated by Auckland DHB and designed to enable students to study part time while working for the DHBs’ infrastructure and facilities teams and taking part in construction related research projects. There will be four fully-paid scholarships offered by the DHBs.