Project Controls Professional

On a project controls professional apprenticeship course, you will help ensure the accuracy and dependability of project controls information, as well as interpret project controls reports received from the project controls technicians. Additionally, you will help offer crucial insights into the project, program, and portfolio’s well-being and deliver recommendations for project management.

What you’ll learn

On a project controls professional apprenticeship course, you’ll learn to:

• Examine organisational and business strategies and their impact on project control and execution strategy.
• Explore project control principles within the project life cycle and their role in project governance.
• Investigate project control procedures and essential methods, such as quality control, configuration management, and document/version control, including employer organisation management systems.
• Analyse project control software, its benefits, attributes, limitations, and usage in tasks like planning, scheduling, cost management, risk analysis, estimating, and reporting.
• Delve into fundamental engineering and manufacturing principles, with a focus on reviewing and interpreting technical project documents, such as scopes of work and engineering drawings.
• Understand breakdown and coding structures, their purpose, creation, and utilisation for precise control.
• Examine Project Control Plans and reporting frameworks, their significance, content, and how they support meaningful control data generation and reporting.
• Assess the strategic principles of creating and managing the project controls baseline throughout the project life cycle, including scope definition, schedule, risk, and cost.
• Explore HSE knowledge relevant to the industry and project controls, including health, safety, and environmental standards, legislation, and safety in design obligations.
• Investigate the environmental impact of project activities, their potential contribution to achieving net carbon zero, and strategies for minimising negative environmental impacts throughout the project stages.
• Discuss ethical conduct and diversity and inclusion principles, encompassing codes of conduct, duty of care, corporate social responsibility, equality, diversity, and inclusivity in the workplace.
• Cover data assurance approaches, data validity, integrity, and risk assessment related to data assumptions.
• Analyse various data analysis techniques, their benefits, implications, and how they inform decision-making and recommendations.
• Explore communication strategies with different stakeholders to influence decision-makers and collaborate with colleagues effectively.
• Understand risk management principles, risk analysis techniques, and risk mitigation methodologies.
• Discuss the integration of cost and planning with a consistent approach to project risks and opportunities, including risk analysis and contingency calculations.
• Examine project control change management procedures, their variations in owner/contractor organisations, and their application, including project closeout procedures.
• Explore commercial aspects, contract types, legal principles, and their impact on project controls and information recording, sharing, and storage.
• Review key principles of invitations to tender and bid responses.
• Discuss assurance techniques, including benchmarking, comparisons to historical data, and their application in assuring schedules, cost estimates, and forecasting.
• Analys planning and scheduling practices, techniques, and their impact on schedule constraints and resource loading.
• Explore modelling techniques like ‘what-if’ scenarios and impact analysis for optimising efficiency in time, cost, and quality.
• Investigate cost engineering practices, budget baseline creation, cost control hierarchy, and budget variance management.
• Address financial controls relevant to project control, including taxation, cash flow, and supplier/contractor commitment monitoring and reporting.
• Discuss techniques for progress monitoring and measuring, including earned value analysis and communication with stakeholders.
• Examine progress and performance measurement, establishing baselines, and identifying trends or variances using different analysis techniques.
• Explore forecasting techniques for cost and schedule out-turns, using predictive statistical analysis and engineering knowledge for accurate forecasts.

Entry requirements

You’ll usually need:

• Five GCSEs at 9-4 (or A*-C on the old grading scale), including English and Maths.
• Level 3 qualifications, such as A-Levels, NVQs, a BTEC or a Level 3 (Advanced) apprenticeship.
  

Assessment methods

The programme is assessed in various ways before completing the End Point Assessment, including a technical work-based assignment with report, presentation and questioning plus a professional discussion underpinned by a portfolio of evidence.

Restrictions and requirements

• Apprentices without level 2 English and maths will need to achieve this level prior to taking the end-point assessment.

Duration, level, subjects and potential salary upon completion