APM Chartered Project Professional – Complete Support

Level One Support
When your initial draft of the two key components of the written application (the project overview/s and your competence statements) is ready for review you send it to your CITI consultant.  They will provide a detailed commentary and suggestions for improvement areas, across all aspects of your overview/s and all your competence statements, in a written report.  Typically, once you’ve received this report, a telephone/virtual meeting will be held to discuss it, and any related recommendations, in detail.

Once you have had an opportunity to incorporate any recommendations or amendments a second round of review will be conducted.  This review is based on a sample of the revised submission, one or two of your overviews and three or four of your competence statements (typically those that had been least robust in your first draft) will be subjected to review and, again, commentary will be provided.

Level Two Support
CITI’s ChPP application support process offers support in preparation for the interview.  This support covers a preparatory session of approximately two hours duration and involves the practise of interview techniques and rehearsal of assessment type questions resulting in ‘real-time’ coaching. A written resume of the main conclusions is also included.  This session is aimed at affirming the readiness of the candidate and building confidence and is a flexible process driven by the candidate’s needs and level of capability.

The session begins with a discussion and agreement of the approach the candidate favours; this depends on the candidate’s own analysis of their strengths and weaknesses.

There are two aspects to the interview support:

1. Personal and interpersonal skills in interview situations (‘soft skills’ such as questioning and listening techniques, body language, communications, projecting confidence, etc.).
2. Technical knowledge and the ability to display it during interviews, particularly for route three candidates.

The discussion aims to clarify what the candidate wishes to focus their attention on.  Candidates frequently perceive they are weak in one or the other aspects and require equal weighting on both.

Once agreed the session moves into ‘mock’ interviews covering the technical knowledge aspects of their competences (predominantly for route three candidates).  For route one candidates the questions nearly all relate to professional practice.  The mock interviews run for about twenty minutes to half an hour followed by immediate feedback on how to improve performance. This feedback covers both the personal interview techniques and the extent and appropriateness of answers given to the technical knowledge questions.  Typically, there are three or four rounds of this during the session and we recommend that the session is scheduled for at least a two-hour duration.

Post session the coach prepares a brief written resume of the main strengths and weaknesses exhibited and confirms the recommendations to improve performance.

• Advice as to whether you are ready to apply or whether you might benefit from further targeted experiences before submitting an application. This service can be used for application review or the pre-interview review
• Development suggestions which would enable you to develop in your weaker areas
• Guidance and discussions on the most relevant projects / programmes / portfolios from your CV/ range of initiatives
• Guidance and discussions on the most appropriate competences given your range of potential projects.