The Project Academy team won a competitive tender against stiff competition to initially pilot a scheme to enable BAA to define the competences required at various project management levels and to assess skills against those profiles. Our team designed and implemented a bespoke solution involving a combination of our skills in role profiling, competence assessment, career coaching and adoption of APM’s Competence Framework. The pilot included over 30 staff enabling clear visibility of competence profiles at various levels, against which PPM staff initially self assessed, followed by line manager validation and independent competence assessment by The Project Academy.
The 1-2-1 sessions with the Academy Team were a huge success, with extremely positive feedback. The process involved a review of career history, leading to validation or alteration of self-assessed scores and a review of individual strengths and development needs.
Finally, a coaching review was undertaken to enable focus on each PPM’s career vision and route to achieve that vision. Backed by detailed gap analysis reporting and summary feedback, the pilot was so successful that Heathrow had no hesitation in rolling-out the programme to the whole community of over 250 PM staff. The independent 1-2-1 sessions were offered to a total of 140 staff. Heathrow then benefitted from The Project Academy presenting an independent report to on the PPM community’s strengths, weaknesses and training needs analysis, all aligned to APM’s professional standards.