APM’s Project Management Challenge: Empowering future project managers

APM is delighted to be running Project Management (PM) Challenge again this year, with eight regional networks offering the competition, including London and North West Network who will be running it for the first time. Teams can enter from 1 October so if you would like to be a part of this year’s competition, find out more and submit your entry before 1 November.

Overview of the Challenge
The challenge aims to nurture the next generation of project management professionals by providing entrants the opportunity to experience a full project lifecycle from conception to delivery, supported by experienced mentors. It is designed for corporate apprentices, recent graduates with less than three years of experience, and higher education students. Participants will use APM’s theoretical frameworks and project competencies to guide their projects.

Read about the innovative projects last year's winning teams delivered

North East: Team Nexus, consisting of three recently qualified project professionals. They focused on community service, organizing a volunteering day to support the Ouseburn Trust’s environmental projects. Their efforts involved de-vegetation and walkway development, laying the groundwork for future collaborations with the Trust., The day was extremely successful, with the Ouseburn Trust and Nexus volunteers finding the day very beneficial. The event has set the foundations to future volunteering opportunities and a strong relationship between Nexus and the Ouseburn Trust. 

Thames Valley: Team PM Dream Team from Mott Macdonald were inspired by an internal exercise that highlighted the issue of burnout within our organization. They decided to focus on providing support materials and raising awareness about mental and physical resilience within Mott MacDonald. Collaborating with their unit’s Wellbeing team, they organized a hybrid workshop focused on developing mental and physical resilience featuring expert speakers. Additionally, they created a Resilience Handbook, available on Mott MacDonald’s intranet, offering tips to enhance and maintain mental resilience. The team commented that participating in the challenge allowed them to further develop their project management skills around several key areas including change control, risk management, and benefits realisation.

Scotland: North Coast Net Zero from NRS Dounreay combined environmental action with community engagement, supporting Thurso Community Development Trust in sustainable projects. Their event raised £889 and engaged over 290 people on topics of sustainability, waste reduction, and community development.

South Wales and West England: Team Synergy partnered with the Ash Rescue Centre, which provides retirement care for horses and donkeys. The team implemented a customer relationship management (CRM) system, transforming the charity’s sponsorship process. Since the system's launch, Ash Rescue Centre has seen a significant increase in sponsorships.​

Wessex: Team of Tomorrow consisted of six Project Management Apprentices from BAE Systems who delivered an interactive resource to inform users on Artificial Intelligence in Project Management. This learning resource involves a board game where users navigate through a project following a Linear Life Cycle while understanding how time, cost and quality are affected when making decisions. Moving around the board, users learn the positive and negative effects of Artificial Intelligence on a project; incorporating aspects of data processing, workplace redundancies and company reputation. This development is now used by BAE Systems Early Careers at STEM Outreach Events and Open Evenings.

Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire: Coming together back in October 2023, Team Summit, from Jacobs, quickly found a collective vision of delivering a fundraising event for Men’s metal health charity ANDYSMANCLUB. Combining their love for live music and the need to raise awareness for men’s mental health, Team Summit successfully made use of the APM’s £150 funding to deliver a Charity Concert in Manchester city centre with 177 attendees raising £3022 for ANDYSMANCLUB.  The endeavor did not come without it’s challenges, risks and last minute disasters. But, despite this Team Summit are grateful for the opportunity and incredibly proud of the outcome.

National Award
This year Project Management Challenge will be recognised for the first time at a national level as a category at the APM Project Management Awards. Regional winners were shortlisted to take part and after rigorous judging two teams were selected as finalists to attend our prestigious awards ceremony on 18 November at the Park Plaza Westminster Bridge, London, where the National PM Challenge winner will be crowned.

Could you be part of this year’s winning team? Learn more about how to enter the competition and take the first step toward advancing your project management career!

Register now