Project Management Leader Invests £250,000 in Specialist Training Centre
20 September 2010
Global project management training leader 20|20 Business Insight has invested £250,000 on establishing a major new training and project delivery centre which opens in Aberdeen this week.20|20 Business Insight, headquartered in Dundee, has added the facility at Burnbank Business Centre, Altens to its portfolio in response to rising demand from clients, particularly in the energy sector.
As part of the new setup, 20|20 has relocated three senior staff to the site from its main base in Tayside, including director of consulting services Doug Littlejohn, with further appointments expected later in the year.
Trainees from across the oil and gas industry will be taught by 20|20’s industry-leading Association of Project Management (APM) and Project Management International (PMI) accredited lecturers at the site, with three senior staff based there full-time.
Delegates arriving at the centre this week include representatives from oil and gas majors and service companies including Centrica, Acergy, Nexen, JP Kenny, Petrofac, Stena Drilling Ltd and Expro.
The opening of the training facility comes in the wake of the company’s move to new, larger offices at Ingleside, Broughty Ferry, Dundee, from its previous headquarters nearby at Brook House.
Tony Marks, managing director of 20|20 Business Insight, says the Aberdeen base enables the company to offer a more complete service to clients in a purpose-designed venue closer to one of the main centres of operations for one of their largest growth markets.
“I am delighted that we have been able to secure this site as our specialist training facility in Aberdeen, giving existing and new clients a modern and relaxed setting in which to learn from our team.
“APM and PMI-certified training is relevant across a number of sectors and the systematic approach it engenders among graduates ensures that the successful delivery of a project is consistently aligned to organisations' strategic objectives.
“At present we have three permanent staff based in Aberdeen, however we envisage this will rise in the near future as we have seen consistent client growth over the past five years – a fact which led directly to the establishment of this centre."
Staff leading operations at the Aberdeen facility relocated from the firm’s existing team of 20 at Ingleside in Dundee, and Mr Marks hopes to see the number based in the north-east treble in around six months.
20|20 has attracted continued new investment and client work, leading to the opening of the training facility and through ongoing development of the business's consultancy services continued growth is being forecast.
Doug Littlejohn, director of consultancy services for 20|20, says: "As well as providing in-house and external courses from the new project delivery centre, we will be running all global consulting services from Aberdeen going forward.
"We have already secured a deal to provide project controls support to the leading Africa- focussed independent oil company, Tullow Oil. This work complements our already growing order book for project management and project controls competency frameworks, process modelling and general project management and controls support."
The organisation runs more than 200 project management courses on an annual basis, with work in 2010 including a major event for a team of Nigerian construction contractors working for the exploration and production supermajor Chevron in the Niger Delta.
