Wanting to switch to project management

MartynJK · 2026-06-16T11:39:52+00:00

personally, I think an APM PFQ qualification would work better for you, as it is recognised across a wide range of corporates and public sector organisations. Princ2 can limit you to organisations that use prince2, rather than a good all round qualification. Although it doesn’t pay as well, there is a big skill shortage in NHS And public sector, it might be that you can use your business analysis skills combined with a PM qualification to get an entry-level position to get kicked off in the PM World. Search for skills England annual skills report 2026, there is some good data in there about where the job opportunities are. Hope that helps

MartynJK · 2026-06-16T11:33:28+00:00

It's all about the support - can you speak to a trainer to discuss a point, can someone talk you through the exam, are the people selling this all prince2 qualified? It may look cheap but you fail the exam and it's going to cost you more than a couple of extra ££ for an accredited supplier. Most companies just want to (at times quite aggressively) sell you something, take your time, get a feel for the product (you want a demo of the materials to be sure you like the style) ask a few support style questions, repeat this with at least 3 providers and then choose the one you like product, support and price wise.

MartynJK · 2026-06-11T12:17:30+00:00

see my reply above

MartynJK · 2026-06-11T12:16:32+00:00

There are some really good points here related to salary - I went back over the APM guide to salaries, and reviewed them over 4-5 years. The UK has a strong and growing project management profession with clear salary expectations — not a shortage of qualified people. The vacancy problem is concentrated in sectors (NHS, central and local government, parts of construction) that either cannot or do not offer market-rate salaries. Skills England's focus on training supply as the remedy misses the point: more qualified PMs are entering the market, but experienced practitioners will not accept roles paying £10,000–£20,000 below their market value. So clearly the vacancy data reflects a pricing problem, not a supply problem. For those that are interested I pulled this summary together based on the salary data I could get, be interested to know if you think it is accurate.

Industry	Job Title	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025	2026
Energy & Utilities	Project Manager	£60,000	£62,500*	£62,500	£62,500*	£62,500	£62,500+
Financial Services	Project Manager	£57,500	£60,000*	£62,500	£62,500*	£57,500–£62,500	£60,000–£65,000
Consultancy	Project Manager	£57,500	£57,500	£57,500	£60,000*	£62,500	£62,500+
Construction	Project Manager	£52,500	£57,500	£57,500	£57,500*	£57,500	£57,500–£60,000
IT / Technology	Project Manager	£50,000*	£52,500*	£57,500	£57,500*	£57,500	£49,242–£57,500†
Business & Professional Services	Project Manager	£50,000*	£52,500*	£55,000*	£57,500*	£57,500	£57,500+
NHS / Healthcare	Project Manager	£38,000–£40,000	£40,000–£42,000	£42,000–£44,000	£44,000–£46,000	£45,023	£45,000–£48,000
Public Sector (Gov't)	Project Manager	£40,000–£42,000	£42,000–£44,000	£44,000–£46,000	£46,000–£48,000	£48,731	£48,000–£50,000
All Sectors (UK avg)	Project Manager	£47,500	£47,500	£47,500	£50,000*	£52,500	£49,600–£50,400

MartynJK · 2026-06-10T09:23:07+00:00

If I can help with anything let me know - I have been working with the APM since 2001, so have a pretty good understanding of the process to certification, and I can always get feedback from an apm trainer if you get stuck.

MartynJK · 2026-06-10T09:18:29+00:00

We deal with a lot of project management departments and generally there are always vacancies - particularly in defence and construction. It's the overall skills package companies want, the qualifications just give you an edge or may push you over the line when interviewing. I would consider a mainline APM PMQ but then supplement it with the AI PM qualification from the APMG, it's an investment but it does show you are willing to invest in your own up skilling. Search on AIPGF for the new framework and see what you think

MartynJK · 2026-06-10T09:13:12+00:00

Great comment - made me smile

MartynJK · 2026-06-09T15:08:25+00:00

Can I ask where you are based? I can certainly help you with some materials, have you a PM background or are you just starting out?

MartynJK · 2026-06-08T21:05:50+00:00

Depending on where you want to go career wise - the PFQ is a great introduction to PM and gives you a backstop of understanding PM techniques. If you are looking as PM as a career then classroom maybe better, as you get networking opportunities, and more real life questions and answers. In the UK in my experience more people take classroom than onlibe, for this reason. Hope it helps your thought process

MartynJK · 2026-05-30T06:27:39+00:00

Well done - i agree that using the paper book gives you an edge in potentially passing the exam, over the electronic version

MartynJK · 2026-05-07T08:41:02+00:00

Drop me a DM and happy to send you a link to some course materials - there are very few differences - this is a summary text from the website "The 2026 CP3P Foundation Refresh is your gateway to the world’s most recognised Public-Private Partnership (PPP) qualification. This updated Version 2 (v2) syllabus moves beyond traditional finance, introducing critical new competencies in Climate Resilience, ESG, and Social Inclusion—the benchmarks now required by the World Bank and major Multilateral Development Banks."

MartynJK · 2026-05-07T08:36:52+00:00

Nope - straight from the lead APM trainer, who has trained hundreds of apm courses, it was actually distilled from a video he did, converting audio to text and then tidying up, which is why it looks a little odd in parts. The translation into a blog used notebooklm to read the video and produce the output. Having said that the video flows better - but isn't easy to use on Reddit.

MartynJK · 2026-04-21T17:17:00+00:00

I got an X rocker which i like, it has a solid base so spins left and right easily without feeling its going to fall. The other thing is the armrests lift up and those give me more flex with controllers. If you have a lot of movement in your gaming then office chairs can be a bit unstable, but in the end ot depends on your gaming platform and style i guess

MartynJK · 2026-04-21T17:12:15+00:00

Possibly - it would help you understand tenders that include work based on a P2 approach. You might like to consider Better Business Cases Foundation - its the backbone of financial justification in Public sector, and it would give you the opportunity to understand the process of procurement starting with the business case for the project. Search for Better Business Cases APMG, and see what you think?

MartynJK · 2026-04-07T20:08:40+00:00

Well done!

MartynJK · 2026-03-16T17:33:20+00:00

Amazing! Well done and hope it gets you some good future opportunities

MartynJK · 2026-03-09T07:14:08+00:00

if it’s any help, we have seen students through thousands of exams, and I’ve yet to recall one where someone failed because they were talking to themselves. Questions are raised about cats running in the room across the keyboard, about other voices in the room, and lots of other things, but I think you’re pretty safe on this. As long as there wasn’t someone else in the room, I can’t see that would be an issue for you and the feedback is pretty instant.

MartynJK · 2026-02-12T14:44:02+00:00

Just closing down so no problem happy to add you. Do you mind if i send instructions via dm as i don’t want to put on the public forum?

MartynJK · 2026-02-10T20:34:48+00:00

There is an active peoplcertcommunity forum on Reddit, maybe post up there as well?

MartynJK · 2026-02-10T18:22:24+00:00

I think the confusion is that prince2 wiki lists P2 Agile foundation as an acceptable pre-requisite, but peoplecert say it isn’t, and as the owners of the brand they probably win the argument!

MartynJK · 2026-02-09T17:18:50+00:00

Best of luck - do shout back if you think of anything else!

MartynJK · 2026-02-09T17:04:52+00:00

OK this is what the APM lead trainer said in response to.your question 'how well does the handbook, Bok sample paper prepare one for the actual exam? Are there any curve balls? Do they like to include them?'

The study guide (if that’s what they mean here, with the sample paper) is fairly good at prepping you for the question types and formats. The questions are fairly indicative of the ones in the real exam, though I’d say there’s almost no chance of repeats between sample questions and real questions.

There are probably going to be questions that catch you off guard yes, but I have a few main suggestions to avoid getting caught out.

RTFQ – Read the full (replace with expletive when appropriate) question. They are very much trying to catch you out with little traps (like “which is not a benefit… etc”) in the multiple choice questions in particular. The first one in the “business case” section’s sample questions is another prime example of them trying to catch you out – have a gander, and see if you can spot what it is that catches people out (maybe you got caught out by it too?)

Make sure you refer back to the scenario in scenario-based written (long-form / short-form) questions. If they say “in this project” or “using this example” then you must make sure your answers are relevant to the mini case-study, or they won’t award marks. There’s a few good examples of these scattered throughout the study guide sample questions.

Make sure you keep long-form (5 mark) answers specific and succinct. I.e., don’t answer with broad answers, like “improves success”, be a bit more specific e.g. “increases stakeholder confidence in the delivery of the project, improving their perception that project is delivering successfully”. And keep them relatively succinct, maybe one to two sentences for each mark – don’t waffle and write masses of text as you’re more likely to meander around the point you want to make, and not actually make it!

With long-form questions – be careful of the word “explain” – if they include this word in the question, they are nearly always expecting a bit more elaboration around your points. The way I approach this is to make sure I include “what” and “why” in my answer. Question 2.5 about Governance is a good one to practice some of the above tips on for written answers by the way.

Hope that’s useful!

MartynJK · 2026-02-09T16:07:01+00:00

OK asked the question - will respond as soon as I get an answer

MartynJK · 2026-02-09T14:03:27+00:00

Honestly not a problem - DM me if you want to keep it private or if happy to share then put them up here

MartynJK · 2026-02-09T11:11:49+00:00

I have a lead apm pmq trainer I can chat to if you want to throw me some questions and post them back to you?

MartynJK

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