National Apprenticeship Week: Managing projects at the BBC
As part of National Apprenticeship Week, Association for Project Management (APM) spoke with apprentices who are laying foundations for future careers in the project profession. Here, Thomas Rich, a Project Management Degree Apprentice at the BBC, shares his experience.
20-year-old Thomas, from Hampshire, began his Degree Apprenticeship in September 2023, in the BBC Studios Technology Transformation Group. The four-year course will see him gain a globally recognised professional qualification (APM’s Project Management Qualification) as well as a degree in project management.
Having worked part-time during school and college, Thomas is used to balancing work and study commitments. Being able to carry that on through an apprenticeship was the perfect structure for him.
Project Management appealed to him because of its versatility. “Wherever there’s a project, there’s a need for a project manager,” he said.
Projects come in all shapes and sizes and happen all over the world. When projects succeed, society benefits. Every project needs a project team to keep a close watch on plans, budgets, teams, quality of outputs and any issues that may cause a problem to the project. Without one, projects are likely to fail. The role of a project manager is to apply processes, methods, skills, knowledge and experience to achieve specific project goals.
Skills commonly associated with project management include organisational skills, leadership, resilience and communication. These skills are useful in many different industry types. Project management is therefore often seen as a versatile role that allows people to move into different business areas and industries if they choose to.
Thomas said: “The skills you gain in project management are transferable to a huge variety of contexts. I personally wasn’t entirely sure what specific business area I wanted to go into, so that flexibility was really appealing”.
“The single most important skill to have and develop is communication, which is a big part of the job role. Time management is equally important, project success relies on meeting deadlines.”
Thomas’s degree apprenticeship is structured in a way where 80% of his working week is spent in the workplace and 20% attending university lectures. Beyond this, the degree side of the scheme has an element of independent learning, which is crucial to meeting assignment and exam deadlines and achieving good results.
While this structure may not suit everyone, Thomas says it may appeal to those who thrive under pressure and like to keep busy. Undergraduate courses in project management are also available for those who want to experience the typical university life. However, for those who feel university might not be right for them, a degree apprenticeship may be a more suitable route to go down.
Thomas hopes his apprenticeship will enable him to experience working in various areas of the BBC, before he decides on where to focus his career. “In the long term, I want to explore the huge variety of opportunities that the BBC has to offer” he said. “A few areas that I’m particularly interested in are production, events management and construction.”
A natural question to ask is how much do project managers earn. APM’s most recent Salary and Market Trends Survey found the average salary for project professionals has remained at £47,500 - well above the UK average. Of course, this depends on things like experience, where in the country you work and other factors. The survey also found the average salary for 18-24 year-olds to be £27,500, compared with the current average graduate salary in the UK of £24,000[1].
The future is also looking positive for the project profession. Projects add more than £186 billion of value to the UK economy every year. What’s more, 70% of project professionals in the UK say their company currently runs an apprentice scheme, with 96% of those people saying that such programmes improve skills within their teams. The demand for project management apprentices seems unlikely to reduce any time soon.
Thomas said: “I think there’s always going to be a demand for project managers. I truly believe that it would be impossible for AI to replicate the people skills required to be an effective project manager”.
“These schemes are undeniably very competitive, but that should not put you off applying. If the work interests you and you like the structure, you have the potential to thrive in one of these positions. Apply to as many as you can find. If you feel excited by the idea of working for a company, just apply. In this process, try not to let rejection phase you. Very often, you may be rejected by no fault of your own, but simply because of the sheer number of applicants. Resilience is the key to success in this context”.
[1] Graduate Outcomes report, HESA (Higher Education Statistics Agency), 2022
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