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Work-Based Project

Module description

This module will enable you demonstrate your understanding of the knowledge, skills, and behaviours of a project manager and how these have been applied in a project environment within your organisation. The Work Based Project report will be an account of a project with which the apprentice has been involved and must include a critical appraisal of the project together with a critical review of their achievement in the relevant KSB areas of the standard (see Annexe A, Table A2 in the Apprenticeship standard).

The work-based project must relate to your work environment and must be agreed by your employer and academic supervisor. This capstone module promotes the consolidation of learning across the programme and will result in a work-based project written up in report format. The report must include a critical review of your achievement of the relevant knowledge, skills and behaviours, this there will also be a substantive evidence base which will demonstrate the application of these knowledge, skills and behaviours.

Module aims - intentions of the module

This module is scheduled at the end of your apprenticeship programme allowing you to utilise and apply the learning gained from your taught project management modules. The module will be delivered through three days of masterclasses followed by support from a dedicated team of project supervisors. During the masterclasses you will engage with a range of project skills as well as in-depth research methods and design topics and the resulting project will enable you to demonstrate your ability to implement organisational change management, demonstrate how projects enable organisations to achieve organisational strategy, take responsibility for governance structure within a project, apply schedule management, and manage projects using an ethical and professional approach, and managing with integrity.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. Review and document an organisations’ current state in preparation for change management.
• 2. Analyse how prepared an organisation is for an envisaged future state and know how to develop a plan for progressing from one to another.
• 3. Critically discuss and analyse the drivers for change including those arising from the external environment
• 4. Evaluate how the processes used by organisations are applied to develop strategic plans.

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 5. Analyse how projects enable organisations to achieve their short-, medium- and long-term strategies.
• 6. Evaluate the outcome of the project and recommend actions to enhance the benefits from the project.

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 7. Exemplify resilience and determination when managing difficult situations and able to influence the behaviours of others to meet required project outcomes
• 8. Justify and apply professional conduct so as to enhance the honour, reputation, and usefulness of project management as a professional discipline.
• 9. Recommend how to manage with integrity, sound judgement and take an ethical approach to develop trust with stakeholders.

Syllabus plan

Content for the workbased project include, aligned to the apprenticeship standards:

• Change Management
• Organisational strategy
• Governance framework    
• Control of projects in terms of time, cost and quality:   
• Risk management
• Commercial and contract management
• Project Change control
• Schedule Management
• Personal and Professional Responsibility
• Integrity, ethics and professionalism

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Re-assessment notes

All passed components of the module will be rolled forward and will not be reassessed in the event of module failure.

Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.

Referral – if you have failed the module overall (ie a final overall module mark of less than 40%) you will be required to sit a further examination. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of referral will count for 100% of the final mark and will be capped at 40%.

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

• APM (2019): APM Body of Knowledge 7th edn A.P.M. 
• Burke, R. and Barron, S. (2014) Project Management Leadership: Building Creative Teams , J Wiley and Sons  
• Kertzner (2017): Project Management 12th edn. Wiley 
• Lock (2013): Project Management 10th edn. Gower 
• Maylor, H. (2010) Project Management Harlow, Essex, Pearson Educations Ltd  
• Meredith & Mantel (2018): Project Management; a managerial approach 10th edn. Wiley 
• Newton, R. (2006) Project Management Step by Step, How to Plan and Manage a Highly Successful Project, Pearson Education Ltd  
• Reiss (2007): Project Management Demystified 3rd edn. Spon Press 

Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources

• IPMA Level D Qualification | APM Exams  
• Association of Project Managementâ?¯http://www.apm.org.uk/  
• ISO 9000 http://www.iso.org/iso/iso_9000  
• Prince 2 http://www.prince-officialsite.com/  
• Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) https://scaledagileframework.com/  

Key words search

Workplace project, Project management, organisational value, change management, organisational strategy, professionalism, ethics.