Apprenticeship training course
Project controls professional (level 6)
Ensure that projects deliver successfully and safely to time, cost and quality.
- Qualification level
-
6
Equivalent to degree. - Typical duration
- 48 months
- Apprenticeship category
- Engineering and manufacturing
- Maximum funding
-
£27,000
Maximum amount government will fund
for apprenticeship training. - Also known as
-
- Cost engineering lead
- Estimating lead
- Head of planning
- Heads of profession i.e. head of cost engineering
- Planning lead
- Project controls manager
- Risk management lead
- Scheduling lead
- Skills
-
Skills an apprentice will learn
- Determine, implement, adapt and refine the project controls procedures, methods and systems incorporating the relevant employer organisation management systems and procedures including quality, data management and security, document and version control and record keeping.
- Use project controls related software and IT systems for tasks such as: planning and scheduling, cost management, cost and risk analysis, estimating, progress and performance monitoring and reporting; identify and select the right software package for the task
- Application of and the integration of, software and IT systems to enhance the level of data processing. For example, the use of technology including BIM.
- Technical and engineering principles: interpret technical information from different sources, identify and know the correct data and elements to monitor and control to ensure the basis for any recommendations are credible; review and interpret technical project documents (including scopes of work and engineering drawings etc.).
- Breakdown and coding structures: develop and implement coding structures as well as critiquing and reviewing technical coding and breakdown structures to ensure they provide a basis for project control.
- Lead the creation of comprehensive project control plans and reporting frameworks that identify the right contextual elements to track and the working assumptions to use, in order to generate meaningful controls data, ensuring that project controls deliverables are achievable and in line with project objectives
- Lead the preparation of the strategy for the development and maintenance of the baseline for control taking into account scope definition and schedule, risk and cost (ensuring alignment between cost and schedule using the coding structures).
- Implement and enforce project control change procedures, judge against evidence and decide if a change is within or without scope, evaluate its impact to profitability and make recommendations or implement the change in a manner that reflects its scale
- Ensure that project control work is undertaken in accordance with HSE regulations and requirements including applying knowledge of HSE with awareness of how it impacts on project control schedules and costs and ensuring that the schedule and resourcing for a project meets the requirements of regulations (including CDM and safety) and can be delivered in accordance with the requirements i.e. ensure everything is in place and accounted for to ensure the project can run safely.
- Identify opportunities within their remit in projects to contribute to net carbon zero and environmental sustainability, and then take action to minimise the environmental impact of the project
- Undertake project control work in accordance with ethics, codes of conduct and duty of care.
- Data assurance: challenge, verify and validate data reports and data to ensure their integrity, timeliness and technical appropriateness
- Identify stakeholders across the project for example: those to work with when developing estimates, schedules, and plans and those to deliver controls information and recommendations to. Modify communication style and method to stakeholders, for example to gather information needed.
- Risk management and analysis: undertake quantitative and qualitative analysis of risks and lead regular reviews of risks and related assumptions in the project risk register such as questioning their presence and relevance in order to underpin the management of the project risk register.
- Identify opportunities to use data analysis techniques to benefit project controls delivery such as automating repetitive processes or improving data quality or extracting deeper insights and, validate the related data analysis to ensure correct interpretation against which effective decisions can be made.
- Commercial matters: identification and application of subcontract/supplier deliverables to project control in order to provide the ability to monitor subcontractor/supplier performance and create, record and store project controls content in support of legal and contractual requirements.;
- Create project controls content to inform tenders and evaluate invitations to tender received and bid responses
- Prepare an estimating framework and make recommendations on classes of estimate to meet project needs at different project stages
- Use an evidence based approach to select and apply the most suitable estimating technique for the purpose and undertake estimate assurance, cost risk analysis, prepare related detailed basis of estimate narratives that are evidenced and explanatory - setting out the risks, assumptions, probabilities, uncertainties and contingencies in order to provide a sound basis for decision making
- Prepare planning and scheduling strategic frameworks and make recommendations on different levels of plans and schedules to meet different project needs for example, milestones or detailed engineer schedules.
- Use an evidence based approach to create credible, achievable control schedules, applying relevant assumptions and contingency and undertaking schedule assurance, schedule risk analysis and compile a related basis of schedule that is explanatory, setting out the risks, assumptions, probabilities, uncertainties, contingencies, dependencies and constraints.
- Model the potential for efficiency against time, cost and quality, review and make recommendations.
- Apply cost engineering practice to: recast the estimate and set the budget baseline and; select and apply proven cost control techniques to capture actual commitment and expenditure data with appropriate use of accruals; and integrate cost and schedule data to develop project cashflow projections and assessments of value of work done over time.
- Monitor and control project progress and performance by establishing a progress baseline and selecting and applying the right analysis techniques (for example, earned value analysis) for the size and complexity of the project.
- Control and monitor project progress and performance by selecting and applying the right analysis techniques (for example, earned value analysis) for the size and complexity of the project
- Identify variations from the progress baseline and assess their potential impact, explain the variations to the project, portfolio or programme manager.
- Communicate and justify own conclusions and recommendations for example for project recovery or to lead to improved project delivery by influencing and, when necessary, challenging key stakeholders to make informed decisions. Key stakeholders include the project manager, portfolio manager or programme manager
- Steer across project controls functions in accordance with organisational core values and specific guidelines; mentor and coach team members such as Project Controls Technicians to meet project control requirements.
- Apply continuous improvement approaches for example using emerging technologies and lessons learnt from previous projects.
Full information on Project controls professional (level 6) is available from the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education.