Meet APM’s youngest ever ChPP

Craig Scott started his career in project management aged just 16, when he began as a project management apprentice at BAE Systems. Little did he know that, with a decade of experience under his belt, he would become the youngest ever Chartered Project Professional, after his employer sponsored his four-year journey towards accreditation. Scott is currently on secondment at Eurofighter head office in Germany to oversee project management of the latest Typhoon aircraft for delivery to Qatar in time for the 2020 FIFA World Cup.

While Scott gained his first APM qualification in 2012, it wasn’t until 2015 that he was inspired to go for chartered status. He had read about Mike Wallace, a project manager who was then the youngest ever Registered Project Professional, at the age of 29. Scott explains: “That then set a plan in motion of: ‘Right, how do I beat that? How do I achieve it faster and better?’ APM is the only project management body in the world to hold a Royal Charter, which sets it and anybody who has chartered status apart. That’s so fantastic.”

Bringing millennials on board

Scott hopes his achievement will inspire others in his millennial generation to aim for chartered status. He says the project profession is currently experiencing a massive generational shift, and that getting millennials to follow in his footsteps is important, particularly for the younger ‘generation Z’, who would hopefully be encouraged to follow suit.

His journey to achieving chartered status demonstrated the ageism younger people can experience. Too often, Scott believes, young people are discriminated against by members of older generations, often with decades of experience behind them, who don’t believe that someone younger has the experience, nous and right to be successful.

“I do think we should be nurturing young people,” he says. “I think it is key to give them those opportunities in their path early on in their career. I was fortunate enough, with BAE Systems, to have that. They were very supportive, but there were a number of people on that journey who said I was too young, which isn’t great. I really want young people to push themselves and not let that get them down.”

Generational shifts

Scott believes that millennials’ influence on the profession has centred on the use of technology, specifically social media, as a project management tool. “Every young person within project management can use social media to their advantage – to get what they want and solve problems,” he says. “I think that, in the future, more and more people will be using it in their day-to-day work, and in the management of projects. Things need to shift towards this.” He emphasises that young people bring a different perspective on how to solve a problem, and a new angle on possible solutions.

Reverse mentoring schemes, where a younger person, often at the start of their career, mentors a far more senior person with the aim of discussing a particular theme or issue, are an effective way for companies to reap the benefit of multigenerational diversity, says Scott. Bringing together different perspectives – someone at the bottom of an organisation, who is working on delivering a complex programme, and someone at the top, with 30 years of delivering complex programmes – is invaluable and part of the way forward for the profession.

“That shift is starting to take place,” Scott says. “Businesses really can nurture young people and give them opportunities to develop.”

Full details of the criteria for achieving chartered status and the routes to get there can be found on the APM website at apm.org.uk/chartered-standard, where you can also view the full Register of Chartered Project Professionals

Craig Scott

2019 Chartered Project Professional, APM

2019 Project manager, Eurofighter

2016–2019 Bid/project manager, BAE Systems

2018 Higher national diploma, project management, Lancaster University

2015–present BSc (Hons), project management, Lancaster University

2014–2016 Senior project controller, BAE Systems

2013–2014 Combat air cost account manager, BAE Systems

2011–2013 Cost/schedule integrator, BAE Systems

2009–2011 Modern business apprentice, BAE Systems

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This article is brought to you from the Winter 2019 issue of Project journal, which is free for APM members.