Certification

One of the primary missions of the Project Management Association of Canada is to provide independent third party assessments of project, programme and project portfolio management competence for Canadian professionals. To that end, we provide a number of certification options.

Project Management Competence Certification

Different from the project management knowledge examinations offered by other project management associations, the competence assessments offered by the PMAC are geared to assess the knowledge and experience of project managers in real situations. Yes, project managers need project management knowledge; however, on top of that, to be consistently successful, they need general business knowledge AND they need to display certain behaviours and personal traits. The PMAC competence assessment model looks at the whole person, in the context of his or her work environment, to assess their competence against 46 specific criteria set out in the Canadian Project Management National Competence Baseline (CPMNCB).

The competence certification shall be a key incentive for individuals to expand and improve their PM competence, to continue their education, to gather more experience in their PM practices, to enhance the quality of such practices, and last but most importantly, to achieve their project, programme and portfolio objectives better.

The CPMNCB is derived from the IPMA Competence Baseline (ICB) produced by the International Project Management Association (IPMA). Founded in 1965, the IPMA is the world's oldest project management professional organization. The IPMA ® (www.ipma.ch) sets out its scheme for the project management competence assessment and validates the Certification Bodies of its national Member Associations from about 50 countries around the globe to grant certifications against this scheme, in compliance to the ISO/IEC 17'024 Standard for the Certification of Persons. In Canada, the IPMA has recognized the PMAC as its Canadian Member Association.

The IPMA is serving the project, programme and project portfolio managers with its four-level certification system that includes PM-technical, PM-behavioural and PM-contextual competences. The requirements for each level are derived from typical activities, responsibilities and requirements from the practice.

Please read this brochure with more details on the IPMA competency-based certification system.

Read a detailed explanation of the four levels, the certification processes, and download the applications.

Specialty Certifications

The Project Management Association of Canada is also sponsoring a series of advanced specialty certifications for project managers. After taking training from a PMAC-Accredited Training Provider, a project manager is welcome to apply to write one of the specialty certification exams. Click here for details, exam fees, exam dates, and application forms for our project management specialty certifications .

Directory of Certified Persons

PMAC publishes the names of all individuals holding valid competency and specialty certifications. Click on one of the links below to view the appropriate list.

• IPMA-Certified Individuals - including Levels A, B, C, and D
• PMAC-Certifed Agile Project Managers
• PMAC Advanced Certificate in Critical and Structured Thinking

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