Chartered status – what next?
On Friday we were delighted to finally announce the news we have been waiting many years for; that APM had received its Royal Charter. Seeing the Charter arriving at Ibis House was a personal highlight for me and the result of a lot of hard work by many people over many years. I find myself in the privileged position of being chairman when this has happened and I would like to express my personal thanks to all those who have worked tirelessly as members, volunteers, board directors, chairman and presidents to help achieve this.
The Grant of Royal Charter will generate lots of debate about the future of the profession and the impact that Chartered will have. Inevitably the moment the news broke the team at Ibis House started receiving calls about what happens next.
So what does happen next? The arrival of the Charter, which is printed on vellum and sealed with the Great Seal of the Realm, confirms the creation of the Chartered body. Significantly the Chartered body is a different organisation to APM. Our job now is to move the assets of the current charity into the Chartered body so that it operates fully and most importantly fulfils its obligations. While this is a largely administrative process, it means transferring members, contracts, offices, IT, people, intellectual property and so on into the new body. We plan to activate and work through the new body on the 1st April.
One immediate question many people have asked is whether we will change our name. The answer is no. The Charter still calls us the Association for Project Management. The process of changing our name and all our materials would be a significant undertaking in itself and we’re keen for the Chartered body to begin to operate as soon as practicably possible. Instead, we will adopt a new ‘strapline’ which encompasses our new status, this will feature on our website, emails and printed materials so that it is clear we are a Chartered body.
Our priority, once the Chartered body is operational, will be to focus on the creation of a Register of Chartered Project Professionals. The standards and processes required for the Chartered Project Professionals register will go through a process of public consultation before it is launched.
Obviously something that is keenly debated in the profession is what will happen to APM Registered Project Professional (RPP). While we can’t pre-empt the findings of the public consultation, we can reiterate again that we envisage that current RPP holders will have attained the competence required to become Chartered.
Beyond these immediate next steps, there is a big opportunity for the scope of our work to expand hugely from working with similar bodies to research to influencing public policy. As good project professionals our job is to review and prioritise all these opportunities to maximise the benefits to the profession and beyond.
So, as you can see, Chartered status really is a journey, but it is one that is now fully in our hands. I hope you will join me in making it a successful one for everyone involved in and benefiting from project management.
John McGlynn, board chair
John is a Director at Atkins, a member of the SNC Lavalin Group, and one of the world’s leading design, engineering and project management consultancies known for its breadth and depth of expertise in responding to the most technically challenging and time critical projects. He has 30 years experience in delivering projects in Europe and the Middle East and the last decade he specialised in complex acquisition programmes. He is a Chartered Engineer, a Fellow of three institutions the IET, CIPS, APM and is an APM Registered Project Professional (RPP).
John became a trustee of APM in 2014 and was elected Chair in November 2016. He has been instrumental in leading APM through the award of the Royal Charter and developing APM’s new strategy, Inspiring Positive Change.
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Excellent post, thanks to all the team involved to attain this pleasing result for the benefit of all. Could you see by mid 2017 to provide to SIG's and Branches the Road Map to attain APM's 2020 Vision? One option could be to consider a pilot ahead of 2020 with perhaps the world being defined as the UK and focus upon a limited number of industries. In this manner there could prove lessons learned when seeking to commence a roll out further afield. It's just a suggestion, hope it appeals.