APM Corporate Partner Mott MacDonald approaches milestone of 100 Chartered Project Professionals

Mott MacDonald, the engineering, management and development consultancy, is close to hitting a significant milestone of 100 Chartered Project Professional’s (ChPPs) within its workforce. An APM Corporate Partner since 2012, the organisation says its aspiration is for all its project professionals to be chartered. 

Mott MacDonald has recently welcomed a new cohort of ChPPs into its team, and is emphasising the importance of chartership to its business by aiming to have 100 ChPPs within the organisation by the time the next round of results are announced in October, making it one of the UK’s largest recruiters of project professionals who hold chartered status.

Commenting on this prestigious landmark, Ignacio Herrero, Mott MacDonald’s Technical Principal, said: “Having so many ChPPs within Mott MacDonald is extremely important because it cements our position and credibility both internally and throughout our customer markets. It provides confidence to clients, but also enables our professionals to make a real impact across the profession and maximise social and societal value.

“As an organisation that consistently strives for technical and advisory excellence, the chartership of Mott MacDonald’s project personnel is essential.”

Meet the latest chartered professionals at Mott MacDonald

APM spoke with two of the company’s newest ChPPs, Mike Dowrick and Aimee Padden, about what chartered status means to them.

Aimee said: “I wanted to advance my career and felt that a chartership accreditation would help with this. Once I got my Project Management Qualification (PMQ), I began to assess myself against the criteria and competencies and shaped my project work around this to allow me to gain further experience in the areas that I was weak on. Working towards the chartership allowed me to shape my early career to ensure that I am a well-rounded project manager with wide ranging experience.

“Being part of a Mott MacDonald APM cohort (chartership programme) was the support that I needed to succeed. I asked lots of questions and benefited from peer reviews, and latterly organised mock interviews that were very helpful in calming my nerves and highlighting areas I needed to strengthen.

“Being chartered will allow me to have greater responsibility, take on new challenges, and support anyone in the business who wants to undertake their own chartership journey with APM. I look forward to supporting Mott MacDonald both internally and externally as a chartered project professional.”

“I wanted to allow myself the opportunity to take on more complex projects, and I felt that meeting the standard of a Chartered Project Professional would allow me to do so. I also wanted to assess where I was in my development as a project professional, and using the chartered standard was a great way of doing this. It has reinforced my key strengths and highlighted some areas to focus my development on next.”

“The Chartership process has already allowed me to re-focus on best practice in all areas of my current projects, specifically in terms of improving my delivery and self-auditing in general…and give me a genuine confidence in my ability to deliver future projects, which will in turn allow me to contribute more new ideas to the projects I’ll work on going forward.

“Chartered status will allow me to both take on more complex projects, whilst also ensure that I keep developing my own skills and abilities. Vitally, I’ll also take a lot of pleasure and pride in helping my colleagues work towards achieving their own chartered status. I wouldn't have achieved ChPP status for a long time if it wasn't for Mott MacDonald's chartership programme!” 

As Mott MacDonald move closer to celebrating the milestone of 100 ChPPs, the achievement is seen as a source of pride not only for those who obtain the prestigious standard, but also those who help them succeed. Ignacio Herrero shared his feelings of seeing colleagues like Aimee and Michael succeed in becoming chartered professionals, commenting: “This is, without a doubt, the most satisfying part of my job. Being able to help people achieve such an important milestone in their careers fills me with joy. I have now directly supported almost 100 professionals achieve their chartership, and playing a part in their journeys towards such a significant milestone is extremely rewarding. In the specific case of Mike and Aimee, it is even more meaningful knowing that I have contributed to one of the first steps of the very successful careers ahead of them!”

Find out more about APM’s Corporate Partnership Programme and Chartered Standard