Project management and the private finance initiative

4.6 Continuous professional
development
The questionnaire briefly examined the CPD requirements of
respondents. Some 75% preferred in-house training and 72%
reading to meet CPD requirements. Seminars were also popular,
with 46% attending RICS seminars and 66% attending seminars
organised by other organisations. RICS seminars were the most
popular for the youngest age group (21–25-year-olds) with
61% preferring this form of CPD. This is likely to reflect the high
proportion of individuals undertaking their Assessment of
Professional Competence (APC) within this age group. Other
forms of CPD were favoured by similar proportions of
respondents across age groups. In terms of where people go
to undertake CPD, London and South East England were the
most popular for 32% and 22% of responses respectively.
4.7 Conclusions
The survey has provided the first opportunity to consult the
membership of the RICS Project Management Faculty about their
involvement in PFI. The survey showed that almost half of those
that responded have been involved in a PFI project. The main
findings from these PFI-active individuals are as follows.
• Members tend to be principally involved in the inception,
bidding and construction stages of a project. These are the
stages at which project managers from a construction and
property background can provide the most valuable input to
project based on their specialist skills. The operation stage of
projects involves far fewer Faculty members.
• A well-drafted output specification and a robust business case
are considered to be the most important success factors for PFI
projects. The commitment of senior management in awarding
authorities is also important, as is effective consultation with
the end-users of the projects. Project management skills (in
both the public and private sectors) are perceived as being less
important, in contrast to the interview findings.
• Different stakeholders within the PFI process have different
perceptions about what constitutes the important project
management skills. Investors and FM providers consider risk
appreciation to be the most important skill. Investors also put
more emphasis on political skills than other stakeholder groups.
• For PFI a good understanding of the client is regarded as the
most important skill for the project manager to possess. An
appreciation of the risks involved is also vital.
The responses from those individuals who have not been active
in PFI suggest that their key reasons for not being involved are
broadly out of their direct control. Many of their companies do
not participate in the PFI market, or their specialisations do not
relate well to PFI. For these respondents, the latter reason rules
out PFI work for many. Fewer still feel that they cannot get
appropriate skills in their current working environment (about
17% of non-active respondents), supported by the result that
nearly half of the non-active respondents do not think they will
become involved in PFI in the next two years.
Project management and the private finance initiative chapter four Survey of RICS Project Management Faculty Members
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