Your senior people already work at chartered level. Let your own assessment prove it.
With APM Recognised Assessment, your own scheme provides the evidence. Your people reach ChPP through Pathway 4 with a short APM interview instead of a full written submission.
The same standard. A different route.
Without recognition, every candidate proves their experience from scratch, even when your organisation has already assessed it. Pathway 4 recognises this assessment.
| Standard route (Pathways 1–3) | Through your recognised scheme (Pathway 4) | |
|---|---|---|
| Written submission | Twelve competences, evidenced individually | No written competency statements. Your internal assessment is the evidence |
| APM interview | About two hours, on practice and knowledge | About 30 minutes, on CPD, currency and ethics |
| Your framework | Recognised internally only | Benchmarked against the chartered standard |
| Assessment and chartership | Two separate processes | One process, run by your own assessors |
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Written submission
Standard route (Pathways 1–3)Twelve competences, evidenced individually
Through your recognised scheme (Pathway 4)No written competency statements. Your internal assessment is the evidence
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APM interview
Standard route (Pathways 1–3)About two hours, on practice and knowledge
Through your recognised scheme (Pathway 4)About 30 minutes, on CPD, currency and ethics
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Your framework
Standard route (Pathways 1–3)Recognised internally only
Through your recognised scheme (Pathway 4)Benchmarked against the chartered standard
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Assessment and chartership
Standard route (Pathways 1–3)Two separate processes
Through your recognised scheme (Pathway 4)One process, run by your own assessors
Pathway 4 isn’t an easier standard. A substantial part of the assessment has already happened, inside a process APM has formally recognised.
Recognition is the by-product. Capability is the point.
Credibility you can show clients
Chartered people are an external signal to clients, boards and regulators. A recognised scheme means that signal is produced by your own assessment, and the capability stays yours.
Capability you can prove
Your framework is independently benchmarked and your assessors judge consistently. Competence connects to delivery accountability, so confidence in how it is assessed is a governance question, not just a development one.
A pipeline, not a one-off
When senior leaders become chartered, others follow. At bp, people not yet eligible for Pathway 4 started coming forward, and recognition became a route to chartership across all four pathways.
How bp earned APM Recognised Assessment.
Davy Wilson led bp’s programme to recognition in December 2024. In four minutes he explains why they pursued it, what the process was really like, and some of the unexpected benefits.
An internal path to ChPP for experienced project leaders, building on bp's existing process.
A rigorous, constructive review focused on professional judgement, not a compliance audit.
A simplified route to ChPP that respects senior leaders' time, and acknowledges their existing experience.
bp’s programme, as featured by the Association for Project Management.
Pathway 4 isn’t an easier standard. The chartered standard remains the same.
Four pillars. Remove one and the scheme doesn’t stand.
- Pillar 01
An aligned competency framework
Your internal competencies, updated and aligned with APM expectations across defined skill levels.
- Pillar 02
Technical development
The knowledge behind each competency, taught and tested, so candidates are prepared rather than assumed to know.
- Pillar 03
A robust assessment process
How a candidate moves from nomination to award, and the auditable record an assessor completes on the day.
- Pillar 04
A trained assessor community
Criteria for who assesses and who coaches, the training to equip them, and the governance that keeps them consistent.
APM recognises a scheme, not a set of files.
The application asks how candidates are engaged, how impartiality is held, how appeals are handled and how results stay comparable over time. The scheme has to be demonstrably running, not only described. That is the part most organisations underestimate.
Five tests every competency has to pass.
Most organisations already have a competency framework. Very few were written to be assessed against an external standard. These are the tests we apply to each competency you put forward.
- APM criterion:
- created a risk register including impact and responses.
- Existing framework:
- no reference to a risk register anywhere.
- Action:
- add a criterion, place it at the right level, and name the assessment beside it.
- 1
Clear competency wording
In your language, and unambiguous about what the candidate actually did.
- 2
Aligned assessment criteria
Every APM criterion matched by one of yours that asks the same thing.
- 3
Placement across the levels
Each criterion sits in the skill band that matches its demand.
- 4
An RQF level
Your skill levels mapped to the national qualifications scale, argued once and inherited by every competence.
- 5
Training people will use
Development material behind each competence, so knowledge is taught before it is examined.
How we secure recognition with you.
Four stages take you from where you stand today to recognition, typically over around three to five months. Informed by direct experience securing scheme recognition, and the knowledge of an ex-APM assessor.
- 01Stage 1The framework
- Gap analysis and baseline
- Competences mapped to APM and RQF
- Learning pathways and technical guides
- 02Stage 2The assessment
- Process and self-assessment
- Interview workbook
- Report and certificate
- 03Stage 3The assessors
- Selection and training
- Governance and moderation
- First session and first live assessment
- Stage 4The APM application
- Section by section submission
- The evidence from stages 1 to 3
- Award and ongoing assurance
Ready to explore APM Recognised Assessment?
Whether you already have a capability framework in place or are starting to define a recognised assessment route, we can help you understand your current position, identify development priorities and plan the route to recognition.
- A 45-minute call, scoped to your organisation.
- No obligation. We'll be candid about fit.
Considered answers for the people commissioning the work.
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