Occupational Training Expert Discusses Open Project Management Textbook

Daniel Dishno of the Occupational Training Institute will be interviewed by Open Doors Group Consulting Co-Director Jim Huether as part of the Virtual Press Tour for the open textbook Project Management Skills for All Careers.

The mission of the Occupational Training Institute (OTI) is to prepare socio-economically disadvantaged students with high-quality employment services including counseling and advisement, career education, job placement and retention services while concurrently providing employers with qualified employees. OTI, recipient of the 2010 Community Partner award, sponsors the Computer Technical Support program, a unique initiative that benefits equipment donors, interns, recipients of refurbished computers, and the community at large.

In his foreword, Mr. Dishno wrote: "Project Management Skills for All Careers offers a framework for managing projects in any career area. The concepts can be applied no matter where you work. As a matter of fact, many of our dislocated workers are trained to become certified in Project Management. Project management skills are essential and invaluable for anyone who initiates or is assigned to a project. Project Management Skills for All Careers is a unique book, as it is current, well organized, a pleasure to read."

This interview is the first in a week of events celebrating the first open textbook published by Open Doors Group / College Open Textbooks (ODG/COT). Mr. Huether, a expert in both traditional and agile scrum project management, served as project manager for this effort that shows the flexibility of open textbooks. Project Management Skills for All Careers is based on an earlier open textbook, Project Management for Scientists and Engineers by Merrie Barron and Andrew Barron of Rice University. Maura Jones and other project managers generalized the book to show how important planning, budgeting, scheduling, communications, risk management, and other skills are to vocations ranging from business ownership to nursing and teaching.

PM Skills is made available on the AcademicPub platform that allows students to quickly receive eBooks or bound textbooks at affordable prices. The ODG/COT textbooks on AcademicPub are licensed CC BY to maximize instructor options to reuse, remix, and adapt to their classes and students.