Hitachi Academy: Building a Common Language for Project Management Across the Hitachi Group
  • Case Study

Hitachi Academy: Building a Common Language for Project Management Across the Hitachi Group

Hitachi Academy uses PMP® certification pathways to develop project management talent, support career progression and build project management capability across the Hitachi Group.

Summary

Headquartered in Japan, Hitachi Group is a global leader in digital innovation and sustainable solutions, delivering technology and infrastructure across energy, mobility, industry, healthcare and digital systems. Hitachi doesn’t operate in a single industry: it builds power plants, develops digital infrastructure, and delivers healthcare systems, rail technology, and smart city platforms across dozens of countries. And as its projects grow in both size and complexity, the demand for experienced, capable project professionals grows with them.

Serving as the organization’s corporate university and learning arm, Hitachi Academy supports the Hitachi Group through workforce development.

Hitachi Academy has held PMI® Authorized Training Partner (ATP) status since 2020, continuing a longstanding relationship with PMI that began through the Registered Education Provider (REP) program years earlier. Through this partnership, the Academy delivers a structured Project Management Professional (PMP)® certification preparation pathway serving approximately 1,100 employees annually. PMP certification is integrated into Hitachi Group’s internal project manager certification framework, linking certification attainment to career progression, delivery excellence, and—in Japan’s public sector—competitive bid readiness.

Hitachi’s experience demonstrates how a PMI training partnership can support enterprise-wide project management capability building.

    The Challenge

    At Hitachi, project management isn’t confined to one function, industry or business line. It’s a core capability needed across many parts of the organization, with expectations varying based on project size, complexity and risk.

    Two pressures shaped Hitachi Academy's approach to project management training. The first was the pace of change. Project management approaches don't stand still. Agile, hybrid delivery and generative AI are reshaping what project managers need to know, and they're doing so on short cycles.

    The second was the need for a common language. Hitachi Group companies collaborate increasingly across business units, divisions and geographies. For that collaboration to work at scale, project management needs to function as a shared framework—one with internationally recognized standing that can travel across organizational and geographic boundaries.

    The challenge wasn’t just building a high-quality training program. It was building one that could sustain itself: consistent enough to hold across a large enterprise, credible enough to carry weight with the organization’s public sector clients, and flexible enough to eventually travel beyond Japan.

    Download the full case study to see how Hitachi built project management capability, accelerated certification, and supported business growth worldwide by leveraging the PMI ATP program.

    Publication Details

    Content Type: Case Study

    Topics: Skill Development, Career Development, Change Management

    Industries: Information Technology

    How to cite: Hitachi Academy: Building a Common Language for Project Management Across the Hitachi Group (2026).