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 Utah Society of Certified Public Managers®
By Happi Hansen, CPM
happihansen@utah.gov
Big things are happening with the CPM program in Utah. In our April meeting, J. J. Acker (Utah Department of Human Resource Management CPM Director) presented to our monthly Utah Society of Certified Public Managers® (USCPM) meeting regarding some of the changes that have taken place with our CPM curriculum. Instead of 3 single courses, the curriculum has now been organized into “modules” that can be plugged in to the course when the importance of topics changes (which is all the time in Public Management, is it not?), or when there are new issues on the horizon. Modules also allow DHRM to contract with specialists in each topic as appropriate. This modular format provides much more flexibility and the opportunity to stay on the cutting edge with issues that affect us.
Since there are so many of us “old timers” in USCPM, and some of the new module topics are so relevant, we have now begun to have some of the instructors give us “module synopsis” presentations in our monthly education meetings. This month we learned about the history of the world as dictated by technology as presented in the book The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century by Thomas L. Friedman, a 2005 release that gives a whole new meaning to the “brave new world” theme. As a career counselor in our state workforce agency, I learned a lot in 50 minutes about where to find the jobs of the future and well as about how to re-tread some of our old tires. The presentation by Joan Burnside, a regular instructor in Utah’s CPM program, convinced me (if not all of us) that the globalization we talked about 10 years ago has mushroomed in a way we could never have imagined.
One result of the change in the CPM program has been a “record-breaking” enrollment in our courses. The graduating class of 2005 (who will receive their certification July 28th) boasts a record 144 graduates, not to mention an award-winning capstone project team and the Utah Manager of the Year, Shelly Ivie. Of course I’m too modest to mention that nearly 30% of these graduates, including Shelly, come from my own agency.
I could go on and on about all the great things happening in Utah, but I will just end with a hyperlink: learn about all the changes in the courses at the Utah CPM Program home page, http://www.dhrm.utah.gov/training/cpm.jsp and we’ll see you all in New Hampshire!
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