Education outreach, one year on

A year since APM invested in education outreach, the launch of a new Road to Chartered paper offers the chance to reflect on what has been achieved so far.

Here are the highlights.

Apprenticeships – the launch of the Project Manager Degree Apprenticeship was followed by the first companies offering the programme to new and existing staff.

APM created new apprenticeship guidance for parents and teachers, to help them understand the programme. This gave us another entry point in to schools – thanks again to BAE Systems, Lloyds Banking Group and Sellafield, whose testimonials feature in the guidance.

Events – we delivered more than 70 events in schools and universities with support from APM members. That is not a huge number in itself, but we engaged with many students who were not studying project management.

Student guidance – Project:you worked because it was written and designed specifically for students, with plenty of case studies. It also featured the logos of more than 30 of our corporate members, challenging student perceptions about ‘project management companies’.

Membership – the deliberate expansion of APM’s free Student membership to a wider audience has helped make our profession more visible and reflects our membership.

Ambassadors – we now have 200 graduate and apprentice ambassadors, helping us to paint rich pictures of our profession through events, content and mentoring.

Research – we explored student, teacher and career adviser attitudes to our profession, being pleasantly surprised with some of the interest levels. No other role was more popular with 21-year-olds than Project Manager.

The latest Road to Chartered paper, Relate, democratise, transform: opening doors to project management for young people may have a long title, but the message is clear. APM is connecting more widely than ever before. We hope that you can join us on our journey.