Delivery is flexible to suit the individual apprentice and their employer. The apprentice will have a minimum of one tutorial per month either in person in the workplace or remotely via an online meeting. Group sessions may be available on some programmes.

• Individual employers will set their own entry requirements for their apprentices. Typically, candidates will have achieved a Level 4/C or above in at least five GCSEs, including English and Maths, and hold a minimum of 48 UCAS points, or equivalent.
• Apprentices must be employed in order to study for this qualification. Please see our Apprenticeship vacancies.
• The apprentice must be at least 16 years of age.

• Project governance: 
  • Understands different types of organisational structures and responsibilities, functions and project phases on different types of project. 
  • Understands how governance can control and manage the successful delivery of projects and the significance of the project management plan (PMP).
• Project stakeholder management: 
  • Understands stakeholder perspectives, different interests and levels of influence upon project outcomes.
• Project communication: 
  • Aware of the key contexts of a project communication plan and its effectiveness in managing different stakeholders.
  • Knows factors that can affect communications, such as cultural and physical barriers.
• Project leadership: 
  • Understands the vision and values of the project, links to its objectives and how these can be effectively communicated and reinforced to team members and stakeholders. 
  • Understands leadership styles, qualities and the importance of motivation on team performance.
  • Understands the characteristics of the working environment which encourage and sustain high performance.
• Consolidated planning: 
  • Knows the purpose and formats for consolidated plans which support overall management, taking account of lessons learnt.
  • Understands how the plans balance fundamental components of scope, schedule, resources, budgets, risks and quality requirements.
• Budgeting and cost control: 
  • Understands funding, estimating, overheads, direct costs, indirect costs, fixed costs, variable costs and how to interpret an overall budget for a project.
  • Understands tracking systems for actual costs, accruals and committed costs; alternative cost breakdowns to provide for graphical representations and performance management.
• Business case and benefits management: 
  • Understands preparation and/or maintenance of business cases, including benefits management.
• Project scope: 
  • Understands requirements management and evaluation of alternative methods to learn from the past to improve delivery.
  • Understands project scope change control, baseline change management and configuration management.
• Project schedule: 
  • Can schedule and estimate project activities including how they can be quality assessed. 
  • Understand progress monitoring and metrics to assess work performed against the schedule.
  • Can schedule management methods to evaluate and revise activities.
• Resource management: 
  • Understands resource analysis, allocation and acceptance.
• Project risk and issue management: 
  • Understands the need for and implementation of a risk management plan, risk management methods and techniques to identify and prioritise threats or opportunities.
  • Can apply mitigation actions to minimise risk impacts and to optimise benefits by managing opportunities.
• Contract management and procurement: 
  • Understands the nature of contracts and their implications for contracting organisations.
  • Understands procurement processes.
  • Understands legal and ethical means for managing contracts.
• Project quality:
  • Understands quality management processes, assurance and improvements; outcomes of a quality management plan, metrics for processes and quality standards.
• Project context: 
  • Knows the different contexts in which projects can be delivered, including health, safety, and environment management.
  • Knows the interdependencies between project(s), programme(s) and portfolio management.
  • Aware of project phases and key review points, across project life cycles.

• Project governance: 
  • Understands project monitoring and reporting cycles to track, assess and interpret performance by the application of monitoring techniques to analyse status and manage information.
• Stakeholder and communications management: 
  • Knows how to manage stakeholders, taking account of their levels of influence and particular interests whilst managing conflicts and negotiations.
  • Has the ability to communicate to a variety of different audiences.
  • Can contribute to negotiations relating to project objectives.
• Budgeting and cost control: 
  • Can develop and agree on project budgets, monitor forecast and actual costs against them and control changes.
  • Can support funding submissions.
  • Has knowledge of tracking systems for actual costs, accruals and committed costs; structures for alternative cost breakdowns.
• Business case: 
  • Contributes to the preparation or maintenance of a business case including achieving required outcomes.
• Scope management: 
  • Can determine, control and manage changes to the scope of a project, including assumptions, dependencies and constraints.
• Consolidated planning: 
  • Can consolidate and document the fundamental components of projects.
  • Monitors progress against the consolidated plan and refines as appropriate, implementing the change control process where relevant.
• Schedule management: 
  • Prepares and maintains schedules for activities aligned to project delivery.
• Risk, and issue management:  
  • Can identify and monitor project risk or opportunity.
  • Can plan and implement responses to them.
  • Able to contribute to a risk management plan.
  • Responds to and manages issues within a defined governance structure.
• Contract management and procurement: 
  • Can facilitate a procurement process.
  • Contributes to the definition of contractual agreements.
  • Contributes to managing a contract.
• Quality management:
  • Able to develop a quality management plan, manage project assurance and contribute to peer reviews.
  • They will utilise an organisation’s continual improvement process including lessons learned.
• Resource management: 
• Can develop resource management plans for project activities.
• Can acquire and manage resources including commitment acceptance and monitor progress against plans.

• Collaboration and team work: 
  • Understands and is effective as part of an integrated team.
• Leadership: 
  • Communicates direction and supports the vision for project delivery.
• Effective and appropriate communication: 
  • Works effectively with and influences others, taking account of diversity and equality.
  • Can influence and facilitate effective team performance.
• Drive for results: 
  • Demonstrates clear commitment to achieving results, and improving performance.
• Integrity, ethics, compliance and professionalism: 
  • Promotes the wider public good in all actions, acting in a morally, legally and socially appropriate manner.
  • They promote and model the highest standards of professional integrity, ethics, trust and continued development.

Apprentices are required to achieve a suitable level of knowledge as part of their development in order to gain an IPMA Level D qualification or APM Project Management qualification prior to their end point assessment.

• Presentation with supporting portfolio.
• Professional discussion supported by the apprentice's portfolio.