Highways England is introducing two new certificates for emerging project professionals which will align with Association for Project Management’s (APM) frameworks and standards
The APM has announced that it is working with the major projects profession team at Highways England to introduce a scheme for developing its talented project professionals that – once completed – will give early recognition and membership of APM.
Highways England has defined the two new certificates as Foundation Project Professional and Practising Project Professional. These certificates will be the stepping stones to provide a clear ‘line-of-sight’ from the beginning of their careers, through to chartered status if they choose to pursue it.
The Foundation Project Professional certificate, as the first step, is awarded for supporting project delivery and embedding learning from the APM PFQ.
The more challenging Project Professional certificate is awarded for taking ownership of delivery tasks within a team by providing evidence against eight APM competencies covering technical and behavioural skills across level 2 and 3 of the APM competence rating scale, with 12 months of continued professional development (CPD) activity.
Peter Mumford, major projects executive director at Highways England, said: “Project professionals are vital to our success.
“As indicated in The Golden Thread, Association of Project Management’s latest research paper, project professionals generate over £165bn of gross value added (GVA) to the UK economy every year. That’s £43bn more than the entire construction sector.”
Mumford continued: “We want to attract the best new talent and enable our project professionals to reach their full potential – and that’s why we’re working with APM. Developing recognised project professionals through independent assessment will give our people the support they need to build their experience and meet their career ambitions.
“Not only will it endorse the progress they are making, but it will provide us with the governance, organisation and controls to deliver our schemes effectively and assure our customers that we’re delivering safely and making the most from every pound we invest. With that in mind, I’m going to lead by example and have set myself the target of achieving APM certification this year!”
Apprentice project manager at Highways England, Owen Adams, commented: “This news gives me real confidence that I made the right decision to join Highways England as a project management apprentice. I know where I want to get to and I can build my pathway there, right up to Chartered.”
Chief executive at APM Debbie Dore, added: “Raising the profile of project professionals and the roles they play is pushing the industry forward and encouraging innovation across delivery.
“By mapping its career paths to the professional qualifications and chartership offered by APM, Highways England will give its employees a great opportunity to develop their career aligned to professionally recognised standards.”
