APM Rebranding: The Qualification Name Changes Explained

In October, Association for Project Management announced name changes to two of its qualifications. This is APM’s new naming convention:

• The Introductory Certificate is now the APM Project Fundamentals Qualification (PFQ)
• APMP is now APM Project Management Qualification (PMQ)

At ILX, we also offer APM Project Management Qualification for PRINCE2 Practitioners. This specialised course was previously called APMP for PRINCE2 Practitioners. Now, it also conforms to APM’s new naming standard.

While all this may be confusing at first, these name changes will prove beneficial in the long run. APM’s motivation for the new naming convention is simplicity and cohesion.

Simplicity

APM qualifications have existed for decades. Over this time, they adopted many variants and styles. Originally, APM Professional was shortened to APMP. This was later lengthened to APMP: The Project Management Qualification. The Introductory Certificate in Project Management was just as confusing. The number of variants included IC, ICPM and Introductory Certificate. Even if you know the qualification’s name, knowing the ‘right’ version to search for wasn’t obvious.

The new naming system settles a lot of confusion. After they have time to bed in, the APM qualification names will be simpler to understand and more standardised. This is how the