MOD department DE&S: Corporate re-accreditation
Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S), the trading arm of the Ministry of Defence, has recently been re-accredited by APM.
DE&S procures and gives lifetime support for the equipment that the Royal Navy, British Army and Royal Air Force need to protect the UK and meet a complex range of threats and challenges in a rapidly changing world. DE&S spends around £14bn a year on behalf of its customers; £6.2bn on new equipment, £7.7bn on support and around £1bn on our operating costs.
APM Accreditation is a widely recognised mark of quality for organisations, training providers and academic institutions. It offers assurance for those wanting to access the best project management professional development services available.
Corporate Accreditation by the Chartered body for the project profession assesses an organisation’s professional development scheme, providing confidence to all stakeholders of its dedication to developing project professionals.
"Achieving corporate accreditation is great news for DE&S and the function. With APM Corporate Accreditation, we stand out as an exemplar in the development of project management professionals – helping us attract, develop and retain the best talent in the country and reaffirm our position as a world-class delivery organisation and partner of choice for our customers and suppliers,” explains Mark Hawkins, corporate function manager and deputy head of profession, DE&S.
As well as ships, submarines, aircraft, vehicles, weapons and supporting services, DE&S is also responsible for food, clothing, medical supplies and temporary accommodation. It manages inventories and supports the British Forces Post Office and the Submarine Dismantling Project.
DE&S’s priorities are to provide the best possible support to the Armed Forces and to secure best value for money for taxpayers. The DE&S transformation programme underpins this challenge and, it is through this, that DE&S will become a recognised leader in Defence acquisition and in-service support. The strong bias towards managing and delivery in the work of DE&S is reflected in the number of staff working towards project management qualifications even though it may not be their lead career anchor.
One of the ways that DE&S has set its professional standards is by providing opportunities to its staff to undertake industry recognised qualifications. The APM suite of qualifications are the predominant professional standard with an impressive number of staff holding or working towards various levels from the APM Project Fundamentals Qualification (PFQ) to APM Registered Project Professional (RPP). DE&S can also boast the first-ever holder of the new APM Project Professional Qualification (PPQ).
“Using a professional body, and adopting an industry benchmark that is recognised internationally, enables us to develop our community in their professional excellence,” said Mark Hawkins.
As part of its progressive improvement process, the organisation has moved from taking APM competencies as a reference to wholeheartedly adopting the APM Competence Framework. DE&S has now embedded these competencies at the heart of the five cross-cutting competencies, which underpins the DE&S Professional Competence Framework.
Every project management, and supporting role, at all levels has the required APM competencies built into the newly implemented role profile. Individuals will then be assessed against this, as part of their twice yearly performance assessment, to assist in highlighting opportunities for professional development and identifying the future career pathway to realise future aspirations and achieve professional excellence.
Find out more about APM accreditation
0 comments
Log in to post a comment, or create an account if you don't have one already.