Listen now: How Atkins Global leverages PMTraining for their Organization
Updated: Jun 20, 2025
Featured on PMI's "Projectified" podcast, hear how PMTraining helps companies standardize their
team performance with certification training. Atkins Global, a multinational engineering, project
management, and services company sits down to discuss how they "upskill" with PMTraining.
Upskilling for Career Success
In today’s environment where teams are predominantly decentralized and are asked to do more with less, how important is it that everyone on the team has the skills–and the SAME skills–to meet the company’s needs?
That was the challenge facing Matt Koch, Vice President and Director of Operations for the Federal Business unit of Atkins North America, a design engineering and project management consulting firm. Matt decided that getting his PMP certification was necessary for his role at the company and used PMTraining to prepare for and pass the exam.
“In my career, where I’m at now, I am directing all of operations. I am directing a cadre of project directors who then manage project managers who manage projects for their clients.” While this makes him removed from day-to-day project management, he saw the need to be well-versed in the PMI requirements so that he could lead by example.
Creating a Program for the Team
With this as the starting point, it then became evident that training not only Matt but some of the other staff at Atkins. Rather than haphazardly sending employees to whatever training was available, they went to PMTraining to obtain a customized training that would allow them to train together in a way that was specific to their organization and their learning needs.
Through this program, they established week-long trainings of 10-12 Atkins staff each all done online. It was exclusive to the company and allowed them to focus on issues that directly affect Atkins. Matt says,
“It was very beneficial, versus me and 10 other people from 10 other companies going to a class together and not knowing each other, not being able to share experiences, not being able to bring up that project that was in the closet, that everybody in the company knows about that was a disaster five years ago that we’re using as a learning lesson”
He goes on to say that this training specific to their organization even being virtual allowed them to network across many different segments of the organization for the group that came together daily for two weeks.
Advice for Others
Among the many benefits of going through the program first himself, Matt has been able to counsel those in operations that have gone through the coursework after. He’s been able to impress upon them the need to take the training seriously, to follow the roadmap that PMTraining provides and don’t ignore the need to study and read the PMBOK thoroughly. He also suggests giving the training classes your full attention and doing the homework and study exams. And lastly, he recommends some time prior to the exam to decompress and prep for the actual exam. Having gone through the training and exam himself, Matt believes these three steps will be the keys to success in obtaining certification.
Benefits Realized
So what is the benefit of this process and obtaining certification? Matt explains,
“It’s really allowed me to be more effective as a leader for a large team of project management professionals, and doing it in a uniform fashion, I could do with authority and with what I feel is the respect that is needed in my role, in my position, in order to effect a positive change and get results in performance improvements from our project management team.”
The way they orchestrated the training and the certification has allowed Matt the personal and professional confidence needed to lead the management efforts and deliver more value to the firm. This has also translated into the functions of his team.
The project managers have taken more responsibility for directing the activities, duties and actions needed and making the changes to how they were operating before. They are collectively knowledgeable about not just managing tasks, cost, schedule and budget but also the people, stakeholders, clients and time. Matt reflects,
“I’ve seen a huge uptick in the appreciation of our project managers to be able to realize that it’s more than just managing the schedule, budget cost because that’s what everybody thinks project management is all about, is schedule management costs, and it’s way more than that.”
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