Project Manager - Degree Apprenticeship
Apprenticeship Summary
The Project Manager Degree Apprenticeship offers a unique and valuable opportunity for individuals to gain advanced project leadership skills while earning a highly respected, nationally recognised qualification. Designed by the Project Management Centre of Excellence, this apprenticeship has been developed in direct response to the growing demand for senior project managers capable of leading complex initiatives that deliver real impact across multiple industry sectors.
For apprentices, this is more than just a qualification — it’s a career-defining opportunity. The programme combines a Foundation Degree (Levels 4 and 5) with a BSc (Hons) top-up at Level 6, providing a clear and structured academic pathway. Delivered alongside hands-on workplace learning, apprentices apply what they learn in real time, gaining the practical experience, confidence, and leadership capability essential for success in senior project roles. From planning and budgeting to stakeholder management and risk control, apprentices will develop the tools needed to manage the full lifecycle of a project effectively and independently.
For employers, this apprenticeship offers a strategic and cost-effective way to build in-house project management expertise. Apprentices bring immediate value to your business as they develop new skills and apply them directly to your projects, increasing efficiency, consistency, and long-term capability. Delivered in collaboration with Lancaster University and accredited by the Association for Project Management (APM), the programme meets rigorous academic and industry standards, ensuring your apprentices receive high-quality, relevant training aligned with current best practice.
Whether you’re a driven individual seeking career progression or an organisation aiming to strengthen its project management function, this degree apprenticeship is a powerful investment in the future — combining academic excellence, practical experience, and industry recognition to shape the next generation of project leaders.
Apprenticeship standard dates
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19 Jan 2026
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Employer's Premises
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Next steps
As an Employer
If you would like to offer this as an apprenticeship vacancy within your organisation, enrol one of your existing employees on this apprenticeship or simply find out more about supporting an apprenticeship within your organisation, please complete the Enquire Now form above and a member of our Business Development Team will be in touch within 2 working days to advise you on next steps.
As an Apprentice
If you are interested in securing an apprenticeship as a Project Manager, please visit our Vacancies page to check for any suitable roles.
If there are currently no roles available, please submit an enquiry form using the Enquire Now button above to register your interest. We will use this information to let you know when a suitable vacancy becomes available and also to advise you of any courses we offer that might advance your career goals in the meantime.
Key information
Entry Requirements
While are a matter for individual employers, typically an apprentice might be expected to have achieved appropriate level 3 qualifications on entry eg 3 A-levels at grade 4/C or higher, or a vocational equivalent.
Apprentices are also typically expected to have achieved maths and English at level 2 prior to starting the apprenticeship.
How will the Apprenticeship be funded?
As the employer
How your apprenticeship is funded will depend on whether or not you pay the Apprenticeship Levy. If you do pay the Levy, your apprenticeship will be funded out of this, provided you have sufficient monies available. If you do not pay the Apprenticeship Levy, 95% of the apprenticeship will be funded by the Government, with the remaining 5% being funded by you. There may also be some further incentives offered by the Government which we will be able to advise you of when setting up your apprenticeship. Either way, B&FC's Business Development Team will be on hand to help you navigate the funding arrangements and support you through this process.
As the apprentice
One of the benefits of an apprenticeship is that, as the apprentice, you are not required to fund your training. You will also receive a wage for the work that you do with minimum hourly rates set by the Government. Your employer can choose to pay you more than the minimum wage, but they cannot pay you less. For details of current minimum wage rates for apprentices, please visit the Government website.
What will my Apprentice learn?
Knowledge
A Project Management Degree Apprentice will understand:
- Governance and Financial Control: How to apply appropriate governance structures, manage project budgets and costs, report performance, and develop robust business cases to align with organisational goals.
- Business Environment: How projects support local to global business operations, with awareness of sector-specific conditions, including sustainability and net-zero carbon objectives.
- Stakeholder and Communications Management: How to engage stakeholders effectively through strategic communication planning, managing relationships, and aligning diverse interests across multidisciplinary teams.
- Organisational Change: How to support and manage organisational change by assessing current and future states and developing strategies to transition effectively.
- Planning and Scheduling: How to construct, resource, and manage project schedules, ensuring balance among time, cost, and quality, while assessing dependencies and monitoring delivery.
- Project Justification and Strategy: How to develop and maintain a viable business case throughout the project lifecycle, ensuring alignment with strategic goals and tangible/intangible benefit delivery.
- Quality and Risk Management: How to implement quality assurance and control frameworks, manage risk proactively, and ensure continuous improvement in project processes and deliverables.
- Procurement and Contracts: How to manage procurement processes, contractual obligations, and supplier relationships, including sustainable procurement practices and lifecycle cost/value assessment.
Skills
A Project Management Degree Apprentice will be able to:
- Apply Governance and Methodologies: Develop and maintain project management plans, apply methodologies suited to project complexity, and manage the business case through the lifecycle.
- Analyse the Business Environment: Evaluate organisational contexts, legal and ethical constraints, and sustainability goals, tailoring project delivery accordingly.
- Lead Stakeholder Engagement: Identify, analyse, and influence stakeholders through inclusive communication strategies, feedback mechanisms, and persuasive engagement.
- Control Project Performance: Monitor and control time, cost, and quality through robust reporting, forecasting, and performance measurement.
- Manage Risk: Identify, assess, and mitigate risks and opportunities using structured risk management techniques and integrate these into delivery plans.
- Oversee Procurement and Contracts: Evaluate and manage procurement and contract types to support delivery outcomes, ensuring compliance and value.
- Implement Change Control: Apply structured change management processes, assess impact, and make decisions that balance stakeholder needs and business goals.
- Optimise Scheduling and Resources: Manage project scheduling, resource acquisition, and allocation to ensure effective delivery under constrained conditions.
Behaviours
A Project Management Degree Apprentice will demonstrate:
- Leadership: Inspire and lead project teams, promote organisational values, and foster inclusive and diverse working environments.
- Collaboration and Teamwork: Build trust, motivate teams, delegate effectively, and maintain strong internal and external relationships.
- Accountability: Take ownership of outcomes, demonstrate resilience, and apply sound judgement in challenging situations.
- Integrity and Professionalism: Act ethically, communicate truthfully, and uphold the reputation of the project management profession.
- Inclusivity: Be open, respectful, and inclusive, actively seeking diverse perspectives and fostering a culture of trust.
- Innovation and Resourcefulness: Approach problems creatively, embrace change, respond to feedback, and focus on sustainable, forward-thinking solutions.
- Commercial Awareness: Make decisions with commercial insight, balancing cost, value, and long-term organisational benefits.
- Responsiveness to Change: Adapt quickly to evolving needs, including regulatory, environmental, and strategic shifts, particularly around sustainability goals like net zero.
Expert Tutors
All tutors involved in the delivery of courses and apprenticeships within the College are approved to teach the subjects and modules they deliver.
Our recruitment process ensures that tutors delivering a given programme are suitably qualified and, where appropriate, possess relevant technical and industrial experience and a familiarity with professional practice. This is especially important for apprenticeships where off-the-job training needs to align with apprentices' on-the-job experience.
How will the Apprenticeship be delivered?
The apprenticeship will typically be delivered over a 48-month period with additional time required to prepare for the End Point Assessment. Apprentices' time will typically be split 80:20 throughout the apprenticeship programme with four days a week spent at the employer premises learning on the job and one day a week spent off-site, undertaking classroom-based and/or workshop-based training at B&FC. This delivery model and the method of delivery can be varied to suit the needs of individual employers, including accommodating remote modes of study.
What support will I get from B&FC?
As the employer
Each employer is supported by an experienced member of our Business Development Team to set up their apprenticeship. For those employers who are completely new to the apprenticeship process, the Team will support them with all the necessary paperwork and administration to get their apprenticeship programme up and running as quickly and efficiently as possible. For existing employers, their dedicated Client Services Manager will be an ongoing point of contact for all their apprenticeship queries, however big or small.
We can also help employers who are looking to recruit new apprentices by advertising their vacancy, finding suitable applicants and supporting them with the interview and selection process. Once an apprentice is onboard, our Curriculum Tutors and Apprenticeship Trainers and Skills Coaches also step in to support the employer-apprentice relationship and ensure the apprentice is on track to succeed.
As the apprentice
In the first instance, we aim to give potential apprentices all the support they need to find a suitable apprenticeship. That can mean working with them prior to an application to improve their CV, hone their interview skills and advise them of any additional training that may help them secure an apprenticeship vacancy.
Once they start their apprenticeship, we continue to support them with their off-site training and with regular meetings with our Apprenticeship Trainers and Skills Coaches to ensure they are progressing and acquiring all the knowledge, skills and behaviours that will ensure they complete their apprenticeship successfully.
How will the Apprenticeship be assessed?
What is an end-point assessment and why it happens
An EPA is an assessment at the end of the apprenticeship. The EPA is the apprentice's opportunity to show an independent assessor how well they can carry out the occupation they have been trained for.
The overall grades available for this apprenticeship are:
- fail
- pass
- distinction
When the apprentice passes the EPA, they will be awarded their apprenticeship certificate. To move forward to the end point assessment, the apprentice must have completed and submitted their portfolio of evidence and been awarded their BSc (Hons) degree .
Assessment methods
Project with report
The apprentice will be asked to complete a project and write a supporting report, the title and scope of which must be agreed with the external assessor at the gateway. The report should be a maximum of 4000 words (with a 10% tolerance).
Presentation with questioning
The apprentice will need to prepare and give a 15 minute presentation to an independent assessor. The independent assessor will then have 15 minutes to question the apprentice on the content of the presentation.
Professional discussion underpinned by a portfolio of evidence
Following on from the presentation, there will be a separate professional discussion based on the portfolio of evidence previously submitted to the assessor. This will last 45 minutes during which the assessor will ask a series of questions which aims to allow the apprentice to demonstrate their competencies in the KSBs of the occupational standard.