Professional development specifically designed for Michigan Public Managers and Leaders!

The Michigan CPM Program is a hybrid program that is grounded on three pillars (1) sharpening the personal and professional leadership styles, and expanding the knowledge and skills of public managers to inspire positive change in their workplaces and communities, (2) promoting the unstinting adherence to the rule of law, and (3) developing public managers’ ability to use language effectively in political and organizational contexts to bring superiors, peers, and subordinates to agreement, action and cooperation.

This is based on the conviction that competent public managers are essential to achieving the duly authorized goals of public policies at all levels of government, and trustworthy public management is a sustaining factor in the legitimacy of public administration within America’s constitutional scheme of governance.

The program provides a comprehensive course of study that is built on recognized public management theories, tools and best practices; and trains public managers to apply these theories and practices to the challenges they face as individuals and leaders in the service of the public. Students are provided with many opportunities to analyze real world scenarios based on case studies, stories and references that help them recognize the kinds of pressures that constitute the reality of day-to-day public management.

The Michigan CPM program uses a combination of behavioral, experiential and best practices approaches in combination with a three-dimensional framework for viewing public management problems, to enhance the probability of producing results that approximate what citizens and their representatives expect from their governments. The framework formalizes consideration of administrative structures and processes, organizations and their cultures, and individual public managers and their skills and values when examining the practical challenges of public management. 

The Michigan CPM program is experiential based with a judicious blend of theory and practice. The rigorous academic and practical curriculum is presented through in-class and online instruction with extensive use of public management case studies, writing assignments, individual and group projects, reviews of current literature related to public management issues, and self-assessments.

The program draws on the expertise of experienced public management practitioners who are directly involved in its development and delivery. Also, an advisory board consisting of key leaders of Michigan government and not-for-profit organizations provides policy oversight for the program.

SVSU faculty and staff or qualified public management leaders with considerable field experience teach all courses. This combination of senior faculty and widely respected government, not-for-profit and private sector practitioners bring academic rigor and the best of leadership and management theory and practice to the classroom / program.

The Michigan CPM Program is delivered using a hybrid format as follows:

• 5 Face-to-Face Courses
• 16 Online Courses
• 1 Capstone Presentation
• 1 Selected Reading Assignment

Click Here for the Michigan CPM Course Descriptions

The Purpose of the Program

The purpose of the Michigan CPM program is to generate excellence in the public and nonprofit sectors by enabling public managers to satisfy citizens’ expectations that their government will perform effectively and honestly, and to make good on those values and commitments that have been given expression in public policies, laws, mission and performance goals. It aims to:

• Develop reflective practitioners who apply advanced managerial techniques and an analytical mindset to real-world problems, and foster learning organizations that use new knowledge to improve organizational efficiency and effectiveness, and
• Encourage the highest possible levels of competence and ethical practices by managers in local, state, and federal government, and not-for-profit organizations

Benefits of the Program (to participants, their organizations, departments, and constituents)

The Michigan CPM Program provides participants with the opportunity to strengthen their administrative, technical, and interpersonal skills through classes, activities, and written and applied projects and cases. Through this training, it supports managers and their agencies in meeting high standards in service delivery in the face of the unique demands and challenges of public management. It provides the following benefits to participants and their employers:

• Educates participants about how government works, what is involved in implementing complex public policies, and how managerial leadership and skills can contribute to achieving effective public policy outcomes
• Enhances participants’ critical analytical and rhetorical skills appropriate to addressing public management challenges
• Helps participants master key decision tools and sharpen their intellectual curiosity about where helpful answers to managerial challenges may lie
• Helps participants understand how administrative structures and processes, organizations and their cultures, and individual public managers and their skills and values can be both a source of management problems and of solution to them
• Develops participants’ skepticism about the value of universal principles of effective practice, and the ability to recognize when they need to depart from such principles based on the peculiarities of their specific context
• Helps participants understand how particular arguments are likely to be filtered through the values and emotions of citizens, legislators, and public officials
• Builds participants’ self-awareness concerning the impact of their own behavioral style, values, beliefs, and competencies on managerial performance
• Enhances participants’ ability to effectively tackle complex organizational challenges, manage their day-to-day operations more effectively, and grow as leaders
• Provides participants with a framework they can build on and apply throughout their careers
• Allows lower level public sector employees to develop a better understanding of the scope of public management and the skills and competencies needed to move into mid-level opportunities
• Allows participants without prior public management training or experience to transition more seamlessly in the public sector
• Serves as a stepping-stone into undergraduate public management, and business administration programs
• Enables participants to network with a statewide and national cadres of professional public managers with a wealth of experience, education and training, and to learn from and with representatives of other governmental units, with the backing, resources and staff of SVSU

Program Target Audience

The Michigan CPM Program is appropriate for a wide range of persons interested in public service careers including:

• Persons with some, and even considerable, experience in the public sector who can benefit from the conceptual foundation and analytical framework provided by the program
• Persons whose interest lie primarily in the nonprofit sector given its public service orientation
• Elected officials, middle managers, professional who have program management responsibilities but may not supervise employees directly, and supervisors of professional staff – e.g., fire fighters, law enforcement, public works and other personnel from state and local government agencies, and
• Administrative personnel in universities, advocacy, grant making and civic organizations.

Entry Requirements

Prospective program participants must possess a high degree of conceptual ability, reading comprehension skills, and written and oral communication skills. They are typically:

• Non-supervisors with leadership potential as recommended by their direct supervisor or the leader of their employing unit / agency (at the discretion of the Michigan CPM program director).
• Managers or supervisors within a local, state or federal government agency, department or unit; or not-for-profit organization
• Persons with responsibility for managing, coordinating, or overseeing a program area whose deliverable has an impact beyond their current work unit

The Michigan CPM Program is delivered using a hybrid format as follows:

•  5 Face-to-Face Courses
• 16 Online Courses
• 1 Capstone Presentation
• 1 Selected Reading Assignment

Program Cost: $2,995.00 (This includes all necessary text books)

NEW LOCATION: SVSU Macomb Regional Ed Center

When: Cohort 12 group starts on Friday, September 13, 2019

Face-to-Face Dates are:

1. Friday, Sept 13
2. Friday, Nov 22
3. Friday, Jan 24
4. Friday, Mar 23
5. Friday, May 29

LOCATION: SVSU Gilbertson Hall

When: Cohort 13 group starts on Friday, February 28, 2020

Face-to-Face Dates are:

1. Friday, Feb 28
2. Friday, May 15
3. Friday, July 10
4. Friday, Aug 28
5. Friday, Nov 13

Application and application fee of $600.00 are due two weeks prior to the start date of the cohort. 

Each candidate must complete the Michigan CPM Application to be considered for admission to the program. Upon acceptance into the Michigan CPM each candidate is required to pay the remaining balance of $2,395.00 before the first class. A penalty of 5% will be added to the cost of the program for all overdue payments. Additionally, candidates with outstanding balances are subject to dismissal from the program.

*Please note that you will need to save the PDF document first, then the Submit Button at the bottom will work properly, or you may send the form electronically to continuing-ed@svsu.edu 

CPM Application (235KB)

Michigan Certified Public Manager® (MCPM) Program Refund Policy

Students that withdraw from the program up to two weeks prior to the start of classes will receive a refund of the program fees paid less a $300 cancellation charge. Students withdrawing after this, but before the start of the first class may receive a refund of the program fees less $600. Students withdrawing from the programs after the start of the first class but before completing the first online course may transfer to the next scheduled program offering but their program fees will not be refunded.

Students who enroll in a payment plan are obligated to pay the full course fee if they cancel at any time after the two-week deadline or after the start of the course. Students will be given the opportunity to transfer to the next scheduled MCPM® course.

• All transfers into future courses are accepted with an ~9% transfer fee calculated from the original registration costs. Transfers are also subjected to availability of spot in the future course.