Kirk Johnson, Blair Fraser, and Yanik Sourisseau, at PMI Manitoba's annual conference.

Recent Red River College graduate Blair Fraser has been recognized by the Manitoba arm of the Project Management Institute (PMI), having earned a $1,000 award from the organization at its annual conference last week.

Fraser was acknowledged just months after receiving his certificate in Project Management from RRC's School of Continuing and Distance Education. The award from PMI Manitoba recognizes his outstanding achievement as a student.

"We ask the instructors to think about the graduating class, and nominate the student that they would be most likely to refer to a colleague.  Naturally this nomination is partially based on student grades, however it also recognizes attitude, drive, determination, initiative and teamwork skills,” said Kirk Johnson, the College's Program Manager, Information, Technology and Professional Studies.

For the second year in a row, Red River College served as Title sponsor for the event, which drew upwards of 150 participants — many of them RRC graduates who were attending on behalf of corporate Manitoba. This year, the College was proud to show off its newly-earned PMI Registered Educational Provider (R.E.P) status — a recognition that lets people know PMI has reviewed RRC's material and recognizes it to be on par with their high standards of training. At present, R.E.P status is recognized in over 70 countries worldwide.

"Red River College is a massive influence on PMI, because they offer the Project Management accreditation process — where you receive the training required to qualify you to write your certification exam," explained Yanik Sourisseau, chair of communications for PMI Manitoba.

"Not only do those courses give you the tools to become a better project manager, they are recognized internationally as the certification steps toward being qualified to write your exam."

Fraser, who currently serves as aproject manager and senior structural engineer for Stantec Consulting, credits his time at RRC with allowing him to take on more responsibilities at work.

"In most companies, they do have a project management philosophy, but nothing that's formally in place," said Fraser.

"Taking the program gives you the ability to go forth and learn the formalities behind the skills — to learn additional skills, and how to implement them in the workplace."

Click here to learn more about RRC's Project Management course.