Focus Area Information

Project Management

Project Management in the Ontario Public Service

The Ontario Government has made a commitment to provide simpler, faster, smarter and more connected public services. The Ontario Public Service (OPS) has also made a commitment to consistently manage and produce successful project outcomes by providing in-house expertise, building internal capacity, sharing best practices, managing knowledge, and reducing reliance on external consultants.

As an intern in the project management focus area, you may participate on teams that are leading projects across the government and/or with inter-jurisdictional partners on priority government initiatives. Interns may participate on project teams to identify requirements, establish clear and achievable objectives, support implementation, monitor progress and evaluate deliverables, manage any risks, and/or share best practices.

Project management is recognized as a core competency within the OPS. A project’s successes are dependent on having the right people who are following the right processes and using the right mix of tools and technology to get the job done.

Skills and Abilities

We are seeking candidates who possess knowledge and who can demonstrate a variety of skills and abilities including:

  • Communicating effectively refers to effectively writing and orally presenting information in a clear, concise and accurate manner
  • Planning, organizing and coordinating involves proactively planning, establishing priorities, allocating resources, and monitoring and adjusting work to accomplish and deliver results
  • Problem solving involves understanding a situation by breaking it apart into smaller pieces, or tracing the implications step-by-step and working towards solutions
  • Work management skills involves managing multiple activities to accomplish a defined set of desired results
  • Working in a team refers to working co-operatively and collaboratively within a team or workgroups to achieve group and organizational goals
  • Information seeking skills: refers to the desire to know more about things, people or issues and implies going beyond routine questions one would ask in the job
  • Initiative is the ability to take action, proactively doing things and not simply thinking about future actions
  • Flexibility is the ability to adapt to and work effectively within a variety of situations, and with various individuals or groups to achieve results
  • Customer Service skills involves identifying and serving an organization's customers who may include the public, colleagues, partners, and peers.

What to Expect

As a project management intern, your work could include activities that enable you to:

  • Recognize the value of project management to enable large-scale changes towards a more modern, more efficient and effective organization and public service
  • Gain hands on knowledge of and understanding in at least one of the project management process groups: initiating (concept/definition), planning, executing, monitoring and controlling (implementation), and closing (close-out)
  • Work in project teams and with stakeholders to identify requirements, and meet scope, time, cost, and quality goals of projects
  • Gain valuable insights into and obtain transferable skills from participating in the project management phases such as planning and implementation
  • Network with colleagues in the OPS project management community of practice as well as with external project practitioners as part of formal and on-the-job learning opportunities.

Looking Ahead

An internship is an opportunity for hands-on experience to develop your project management skills in the public service. It is intended to be the start of a public service career to prepare and develop you for job opportunities in the Ontario Public Service. An internship in this area can prepare you for many OPS careers. A sample includes:

  • Project Analyst
  • Project Control Analyst
  • Business Analyst
  • Project Schedule Analyst
  • Project Officer
  • Project Coordinator.