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The APM Certification Path

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Dave Hannah

Dave Hannah is a Senior Principal Lecturer and product lead for accredited Association for Project Management courses at QA. Dave is an accredited PRINCE2 and APM lecturer and has successfully undertaken training and consultancy to hundreds of learners in both the public and private sectors over the past 20 years. Dave has also provided support to the customer accounts teams assisting clients in considering how best to establish a culture of project and programme management in their organisations. He brings a passion for the profession which comes over in his training delivery and aims to inspire others to progress in this career using industry best-practice approaches offered by PRINCE2 and the APM Body of Knowledge.

Posted by Dave Hannah
on 10 January 2012

It is easy to overlook, in the bright light of PRINCE2, a complimentary certification path that can be undertaken by aspiring and experienced project managers alike...

This is the path offered by the Association for Project Management (APM). The journey along this path can lead to Registered Project Professional status.

The APM offers four project management certifications appealing to different levels of experience (the APMP is at IPMA level D). These certifications use the APM's Body of Knowledge (APM BoK) as the basis of their syllabus. The key points of the 2 examinable qualifications are as follows:

Association for Project Management Introductory Certificate (APMIC)

APMIC is aimed for aspiring project managers and those involved in projects in a supporting role for up to two years. APMIC gives an insight into the fundamental aspects of project management and provides the means to describe 27 key topic areas from the APM BoK. QA offers this qualification in an intensive 2 day APMIC format or over 3 days (as part of the course ' Fundamentals of Project Management'. APMIC is tested through a sixty question, one hour multiple-choice exam.

APMP

The APMP (the final 'P' used to mean Professional, but it is now known just as APMP) is a more advanced qualification recommended for those with a minimum of two years experience in a project manager or key support role. This qualification takes a more in depth look at 37 topic areas and provides delegates with the means not just to describe these key elements but also to explain HOW they might be applied, requiring delegates to have a degree of real world experience against which they can apply this knowledge.

APMP is more robust test requiring delegates to undertake a 3 hour written exam, addressing 10 questions in an essay style format. The classroom course for APMP is very intensive, over 5 days, and requires a great degree of commitment from delegates including homework.

For registered PRINCE2 Practitioners there is a 'fastrack' version of APMP. APMP for PRINCE2 Practitioners (APMP4P2) is offered as a 3 day classroom course with a 2 hour exam answering 6 questions. This certification allows 'prior learning' for 12 syllabus areas to be taken into account, as non-examinable topics

Other APM Certification

For more experienced project managers there are 2 further levels - APM Practitioner Qualification (IPMA Level C) and Certified Project Manager (IPMA Level B). These require considerable practical experience across complex projects and are experiential rather than examinable.

References above are to classroom based courses. QA offer a range of blended and online learning options in addition to this. For more information on any APM project management course look at the detailed course descriptions on the QA website and feel free to get in touch with one of our experts.

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