Become Recognised as a Professional – Certification

• Do you want international recognition as a project, programme or portfolio professional? Do you want to be assessed on your current competence level and be internationally certified?
• Do you want to employ or hire a project, programme or portfolio manager who has proved to be competent?
• Do you want to know how you can improve your competences as a professional project, programme or portfolio manager?

IPMA offers an international, competency-based, four level certification (4-L-C) scheme. In your own country, in your own language, at your own competence level. If you want to learn more about our levels, please look at IPMA Level A®, Level B®, Level C® and Level D®. If you want to understand the certification process, see here. If you want to connect to the Certification Body in your own country, please find your local Member Association here and you will be redirected to your local IPMA Membership Association and Certifying Body.

Individual Competence Baseline

Worldwide, the IPMA certification is based on the global competence standard, ICB. This standard is defined by the IPMA and describes the competences that project, programme and portfolio managers should possess. Currently, IPMA is transitioning from ICB version 3 to ICB version 4. You can contact your local organisation to get more details on the transitioning path. By the end of 2019, all certifications will be based upon ICB version 4 – worldwide.

You can download ICB version 4 on this page. ICB4 is currently available in English, German and Polish – more languages will follow soon.

What is the value of the certification?

Worldwide, IPMA provides the only certification programme based on competences. If you want to know the difference between competence based certification and methodology based certification, please read here, or download the brochure. IPMA Level D® is IPMA’s starting level, aimed at starting professionals. Level C® is aimed at people who have 3-5 years of working experience, and is comparable in level to most internationally used certification schemes. Level B® and Level A® are the levels for the very experienced and competent project, programme and portfolio managers. When you reach these levels, you have proven to be an all-round, experienced professional, capable of running complex initiatives. More detailed information regarding levels and the certification process is available here. The brochure with extensive information is available to download.

If you are looking for project, programme and portfolio managers who have proven competences, look for IPMA certified professionals. Certified professionals are registered in the international database.

Re-certification

A certificate needs to be updated on a regular basis.  After a specific period of time, a certificate is withdrawn unless a person undergoes the re-certification process. In this process, a professional can maintain the certificate, by proving the required competences are still maintained at the right level. See here for the re-certification process.