NASA’s Academy of Program/Project and Engineering Leadership (APPEL) was recognized as the global leader in project management training.

Human Systems International (HSI), a division of the Project Management Institute (PMI), recently named APPEL the “best academy in the world” in the provision, development, and improvement of project management learning and development. HSI conducted a rigorous audit of fourteen individual benchmarks, including curriculum content, internal business administration, knowledge management, and internal and external collaborations. APPEL earned the highest scores ever recorded since HSI began assessing project management training over twenty years ago.

“APPEL’s achievements as a world-class academy raise the standard for project, program and portfolio management by providing a source of excellence that academies and agencies around the world can learn from,” said Dr. Terry Cooke-Davies, strategic advisor for PMI and founder of HSI. “Its commitment to training and continual improvement, its passionate staff and its supportive stakeholders are testament to NASA’s dedication to its mission, and are attributes that will benefit HSI’s entire network.”

The Academy, which includes both APPEL and the NASA Chief Knowledge Office, was evaluated and assessed against more than sixty project management academies from such respected companies and organizations as Rolls Royce, BAE Systems, Airbus, Shell Oil, Siemens, and Mercedes-Benz.

Since first being awarded the title of global leader in 2009, APPEL has consistently improved its score during subsequent assessments through its focus on enhancing the Academy’s functionality and offerings. In 2014, APPEL introduced its first online course catalog: a highly interactive one-stop resource for sharing course information and additional resources with participants. In addition, APPEL developed an interactive Project Management & Systems Engineering Competency Model designed to help practitioners better understand the skills and abilities that are considered drivers of success in their field and determine which APPEL courses will support their career development plan.

“APPEL is NASA’s internal resource for technical workforce development. We constantly challenge ourselves to refine our offerings in order to ensure they help enable practitioners to excel and advance mission success. Because of this, we welcome the HSI assessments as an opportunity to examine our capabilities and expand our value to NASA,” said Roger Forsgren, APPEL Director.

“NASA’s vision and mission demand a workforce with the ability to design, develop, and execute one-of-a-kind projects in aeronautics research, space exploration, and scientific discovery,” added Dr. Ed Hoffman, NASA Chief Knowledge Officer. “APPEL prides itself for its support of this mission through the application of its world-class training curriculum, hands-on development programs, and strategic communications to share project management and engineering lessons throughout the agency. To earn such high scores from HSI is an honor, and is proof that when agencies are committed to learning from the best, excellence can be achieved.”