Teams from Wood plc, ODE, Fluor and TechnipFMC were the prize winners at the ECITB’s inaugural virtual ACTIVE Cup hosted online by Cranfield University’s School of Management.
The winning team from TechnipFMC
The winners of the prestigious competition, in which companies send teams of five to put their project management skills to the test to oversee a simulated construction project, were TechnipFMC. This year’s scenario required teams to deliver a high-tech environmental monitoring centre, along an industrialised stretch of a South American river, to a fixed price. It involved the full project cycle, including negotiating loans, and working under intense time pressure.
Due to Covid-19, the competition went online with teams participating from all over the country and even abroad to take the coveted trophy back to their companies. This presented different challenges but demonstrated even greater collaboration between the teams during the 4.5 days of delivery and competition.
Chris Claydon, ECITB CEO, said: “Project management competence is the absolute bedrock of effective delivery of projects in our industry. Being able to forecast completion dates and the cost of a project is what keeps a project on track or enables people to make contingencies. I was pleased to see first how it is possible to deliver this high pressure, immersive training activity in an online environment.”
Organised by the Engineering Construction Industry Training Board (ECITB), the ACTIVE Cup is run in collaboration with and hosted by Cranfield School of Management. Now in its 28th year, the ACTIVE Cup is just part of the ECITB’s wider project management training programmes aimed at raising skill levels within the engineering construction industry.
Dawn Thompson, ECITB Senior Account Manager, said: “Running a project is not for everybody, but everybody should understand how a project is run, and that is what the ACTIVE Cup teaches industry.
“We know companies value the ACTIVE Cup as a valuable learning exercise. Many include participation in their training plan for employees and enter a team into every competition, meaning there’s always a spirit of healthy competition that continued this year even though we couldn’t all be in the same venue.”
TechnipFMC, Wood plc, and Fluor shared the top prizes while the team from ODE took the most improved accolade for their excellent performance.
