International Course by IPWEA
About participant
I have a Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering. I have worked in many different roles in the field of traffic infrastructure assets. I have been involved in building, renewing and maintenance activities for the assets. My current role is to lead infrastructure asset maintenance contracts and projects for the City of Helsinki, Urban Environment Division.
Why did you decide to do a course offered by a professional organisation in Australia? How did you hear about the course?
I live and work in Finland, but I decided to do a course offered by professional organisation in Australia because I had seen some presentations about asset management in international congresses and had been convinced that there is a lot to learn about the methods and ways to apply the ISO standards of asset management from Australia. About the actual course I heard via the Finnish national municipal engineering association.
How do you rate the course? What were the main things you got out of it?
The course was organised very well, making it easy to participate even the online lessons from another side of the world.
The subjects and the tasks of the course supported the goal of the course very well, as every task we did during the course helped the final assignment perfectly.
The main things I got out of the course were firstly, a much better understanding about asset management itself. Secondly a very good understanding about how to wrap it all in to a single plan, and thirdly I would say better trust to my own work and tasks with the teachings.
The Pro Cert AMP is a very practical course – were you able to apply what you learned in the course in your workplace?
Yes, I have applied some of the methods in my work, but not as a complete Asset Management Plans yet, but I have tried to influence in our processes to make it possible to use all the methods as a complete AMP.
You were in the course with people from other countries – did you learn from their experiences and input?
The course tasks were designed in a way where every participant was able to contribute to the better understanding about asset management and AMP itself. We all got quite a good glimpse into other countries experiences.
How does what you learned fit into your current role and also how you plan to develop your career?
I think the asset management methods and even the AMP itself can be applied into use of every professional management tasks. I have to admit that the AMP itself did not fit exactly into my current role, but I have applied it partly and I believe the teachings of the course will help me in my future tasks in current role or some other role.
What are some of the main issues and challenges you are experiencing in your role?
I think the main issue from the perspective of my role is that we do not yet apply the asset management standards as a complete asset management plan in its all features. Being more specific, I think the future needs and the lifecycle model should be taken in much better use.
How can what you learned in the ProCert course help you with these challenges?
The Professional Certificate can help me exactly in this challenge as I can now justify the need and the issue with better understanding and better ways.
