| "Our business year has been one of significant milestones and one that has built on the foundations we have previously worked so hard to establish."
Professor Adam Boddison OBE, Chief Executive, APM
| "I really enjoyed reading the list of 50 inspiring projects which we highlighted as part of our 50th anniversary celebrations."
Milla Mazilu, Board Chair, APM
APM Members' Review: Strategic goals
In 2022 we launched our new corporate strategy: Delivering a Better Future. We identified four strategic themes to ensure resilience for the future:
| APM provides leadership of the profession
| APM is a professional body for all project professionals
| APM identifies & enables the right skills for the project professional
| APM is an outstanding professional body
Underpinning these themes is the work we’ve undertaken across Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging (DEIB), as well as sustainability. They remain critical factors for us, and those we serve, which is why they and feature in our latest Competence Framework and Chartered Standard.
| Providing leadership of the profession
Growing our membership
Our membership grew by 18.9% and we closed the year having broken the 40,000 mark for individual members for the first time, ending the year with 44,241 members.
We strengthened relationships with organisations across industry and the public sector through our Corporate Partnership Programme. We ended the year with 442 corporate partners.
Growing demand for our qualifications
The 22,261 exams sat last year is the highest ever for APM qualifications and highlights a strong demand for development opportunities across the profession.
| Growing our social media community
Success on our digital channels
Our LinkedIn channel reached an impressive milestone of over 100,000 followers. Our LinkedIn Live sessions achieved 20,000 viewers. We grew our TikTok following to over 14,000 with four million video views and 80,000 engagements.
APM Community mobile app
Our new APM Community mobile app for members launched last year. The app connects project professionals from around the world and provides direct access for all users to the APM Community - APM’s online forum. We reached over 600 app users in 2022/23.
Women in projects
Our editorial campaign explored issues including career progression, flexible working, mentoring and tackling myths around discrimination. The campaign included blogs, interview articles and video interviews that were syndicated and shared by partner organisations, to reach the widest possible audience.
The campaign included blogs, interview articles and video interviews that were syndicated and shared by partner organisations, to reach the widest possible audience. The campaign culminated in an online roundtable featuring prominent women from the project profession. This roundtable was made available on demand and was viewed over 5,000 times by the end of the business year.
Welcoming our youngest Chartered Project Professional
In July 2022, we congratulated Bel French, Infrastructure Project Manager with construction consultant Gleeds, who it was announced had become a Chartered Project Professional (ChPP) aged just 22.
| Identifying and enabling the right skills for the project professional
APM Learning developments
Since launch we’ve developed over 40 modules covering the majority of APM competence areas. These are supported by guides, 100 learning podcasts, tools and templates. We have over 40% of individual eligible members registered on the site.
Publishing
Throughout 2022/23 we published a wide range of books and reports. These included Neuroscience for Project Success – Why people behave as they do by Carole Osterweil and our report on Project Management in post-conflict and disaster zones.
Our publications are also available on the RNIB Bookshop, where learners with a visual disability can access large print and braille books free of charge.
We also worked closely throughout the year with Crossrail to publish a Learning Legacy journal. The journal is a collection of six papers sharing lessons from Crossrail, one of Europe’s largest engineering projects. As an official learning legacy partner, APM was responsible for reviewing the content and publishing the findings.
APM Mentoring
Our APM Mentoring Programme marked its 12-month milestone in February 2023. The programme enables mentors drawn from APM’s global membership to support and guide people in the early stages of their career, returning to work or who are new to the project profession.
We reached have 237 working pairs with 268 mentors registered after one year of being available to members.
50 Projects for a Better Future: Øresund Bridge - A 16km rail and road link that connects Sweden and Denmark, the Øresund project comprises a bridge, a manmade island and a tunnel. Getty Images
| An outstanding professional body
APM 50th anniversary
2022 was APM’s 50th anniversary year. Celebratory activities included 50 Projects for a Better Future - a showcase of the 50 most inspiring projects from the past 50 years which have had a positive and transformative impact on society, the economy and environment.
More than 600 projects from across the fields of construction and engineering, technology, healthcare, education, sports and nature, arts and media were nominated for inclusion by a panel made up of APM members, APM branch representatives, board members and industry experts.
The 50 Projects for a Better Future list was published on our website and a hardback book was also produced and distributed.
Rebranding APM
On 31 October 2022 we unveiled a new brand identity and logo. This was the culmination of a brand refresh to reflect how the organisation has evolved. The new brand identity includes the new strapline.
| ‘Because when projects succeed, society benefits’, which reflects the power of projects to make the world a better place.'
Launch of digital badge for volunteers
In February 2023 we launched a new digital badge for our volunteers that recognises the valuable contributions they make and raises their profile across the profession. We also published a new web page to highlight the vast number of opportunities there are for people to get involved with volunteering at APM.
By the end of the year, nearly 900 volunteer digital badges have been issued.
| Awards and other achievements
Best Companies two-star rating
We were proud to achieve a two-star Best Companies rating in March 2023. This represents ‘Outstanding’ levels of workplace engagement and continual improvement from our 2022 score, which gained a ‘very good’ one-star rating.
Association Excellence Awards
In October 2022 our Corporate Partnership Programme took first prize at the Association Excellence Awards. The judges commented: “This was a very strong partnership demonstrating effectiveness.”
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging (DEIB)
As the only chartered organisation for the project profession, it’s vital for us to continue working to promote, engage and champion diversity across the profession. In 2022 we published our Diversity and Equality policy online to make our goals more visible to the public and to increase confidence in our commitment to DEIB.
Our volunteer community supported this work throughout 2022/23, contributing blogs that cover important topics like mental health, neurodiversity and inclusion.
Our branch network ramped up its DEIB activity, both online and at physical events, and this was well received. A significant highlight was our first-ever Black History Month themed panel discussion hosted by London Branch committee member Mohamed Ali. Over 80 cross-industry guests explored a range of topics including representation and inclusivity, with delegates describing the event as “brilliant and really engaging”.
Thank you, volunteers
The winners of our annual Volunteer Achievement Awards were announced in November. The awards recognise and reward the invaluable contribution that volunteers make to the success of the organisation and the wider project profession. Trophies were presented to winners in six categories:
- Branch of the Year - Thames Valley Branch
- Specific Interest Group (SIG) of the Year - People SIG
- Education Volunteer of the Year - Giedre Irtmonaite
- Volunteer Event of the Year - Scotland Branch (partnered Heriot-Watt University)
- Volunteer of the Year - Dale Shermon
- Special Achievement - Kevin Barton
The time our volunteers dedicate to APM and the range and breadth of activities they help us deliver is a huge factor in our success, and the future success of the project profession. For this, we are truly grateful.
Sarah Slater, Volunteering Manager at APM, said: "I know just how much effort our volunteers put into the different activities they support, whether that be mentoring, our events or publications, to name just a few. We rely so much on their support and commitment."
| Creating public benefit
As part of our 50th anniversary last year, we explored the impact and benefits of some of the largest-ever projects. This laid bare the vital importance of projects, programmes and portfolios that are continuously pushing boundaries in a world that’s often volatile, complex and ambiguous.
With our profession facing increasing demand to harness the power of change for good, we create public benefit in the following ways:
- Setting leading standards
Our highly respected Chartered Project Professional standard has been revised to align with our latest Competence Framework to ensure we continually lead the way in creating clear, accessible standards and setting the highest of bars for the profession we serve.
- Promoting and facilitating education
We lead debate, champion innovation and challenge the status quo. We provide the project profession with recognised qualifications, learning materials and a varied programme of events to facilitate discussion and drive improvement.
- Raising awareness
Our chartered status gives the profession the respect it deserves. We work to raise not only our own profile, but the profile of our members and the wider project profession by celebrating the economic and social value that projects create; especially among new audiences.
- Growing the talent pipeline
We encourage organisations to invest in the professionalisation of employees who manage projects, programmes and portfolios. We work with higher education institutions and professional training providers, nationally and internationally, to promote project management as a career of first choice and facilitate access to our qualifications.
- Supporting research
As well as commissioning our own research, we fund research from educational and academic institutions around the world. We hold events to share these insights and celebrate the contribution that academia and research make to our profession.
In addition, we collaborate with government bodies, private sector organisations and other membership bodies to raise awareness of the importance of well-managed projects, and to advance the development of skills that enable projects to be delivered better.
Achieving these things and delivering on our objectives helps us progress towards a world in which all projects succeed. The public benefit that results from this represents the fulfilment of our charitable object – creating a virtuous circle.
| Plans for the future
In 2022 we launched our new strategy, Delivering a Better Future. This provides a roadmap for APM, showing how we will continue to innovate, adapt and build on current strengths, and it reflects our role and responsibilities as the chartered body for the project profession.
During 2022/23, we undertook a range of initiatives that form the foundations to some of our future plans. These included reviews of our chartered standard, our volunteer relationship and our accreditation model for training providers. We will start to implement enhancements in 2023/24.
These initiatives and others will support us in our ‘1/10/100’ ambition of reaching 1,000 Corporate Partners, 10,000 Chartered Project Professionals and 100,000 individual members. While ambitions on this scale will not be achieved overnight, we do believe these targets can be reached. The work we’ve done over the past 12 months mean we have them firmly in our sights.
Continuing to look ahead
In our endeavour to be an outstanding organisation, we will also be carrying out some internal changes, including the implementation of our new CRM system and enhancing our insights function. We will review our product portfolio to ensure that we remain relevant to all our stakeholders including current and potential individual and corporate members, students and the wider profession.
Enhancing the voice of the profession
We will continue to enhance the voice of the profession by increasing our presence in political and other fields. Working closely with education providers, corporate and public organisations, we will continue to grow the community of Chartered Project Professionals who drive excellence in the design, delivery and control of change.
A commitment to sustainability
We have already made commitments to sustainability, and we will build on these, both internally and as a leader for the profession. We will help project practitioners understand their impact on sustainability, so that they can incorporate it into their projects that meet the needs of the current generation without compromising future ones.