Weekly online
Each four-month module includes 14 interactive two-hour classes and one reading week, following an optional full-day London masterclass. Read selected material, practise between sessions and bring your questions back to the group.
Professional learning · Project Controls & Management
Earned Value Management.
Turn cost and progress data into an earlier, clearer delivery decision.
Spending the budget is easy to measure; understanding what that spending has achieved takes a stronger control method. Earned value management connects planned work, completed work and actual cost so that project teams can investigate performance and challenge forecasts. This course follows the subject structure of APM’s handbook, including the essential groundwork that makes the calculations meaningful. You will practise defining a measurement baseline, selecting progress evidence, checking data and explaining what the results suggest. KBC’s proposed casework moves beyond formula recall towards a balanced recommendation about remaining work, risk and the management action needed.
Weekly route4 months
Live online2 hours a week
Module startsOctober · February · June
Learning structure1 module
The professional challenge
Make the next decision with more confidence.
A project report shows favourable cost performance, yet suppliers have not submitted their invoices and the critical activity is slipping. Is the project efficient, simply missing costs, or both? Your task is to establish a consistent reporting position and explain what the numbers can, and cannot, tell the sponsor.
Who will benefit
For planners, project managers, cost engineers, control-account managers and analysts who produce or interpret project-performance reports. It suits professionals who can work with basic numerical information and want to understand the assumptions behind earned value measures, particularly when delivery progress, supplier costs and financial reporting arrive at different times.
What you take back to work
Practical capability, built through learning.
- Define an integrated scope, schedule and cost baseline.
- Choose progress measures and reconcile reporting-period data.
- Interpret variances, indices and completion forecasts.
- Recommend action while protecting baseline integrity.
Inside the course
A connected learning journey.
KBC proposes 14 sessions over four months: 1–3 scope and baseline; 4–5 progress measurement; 6–7 data collection; 8–11 analysis and forecasting; 12–14 change, review and integrated casework. This sequence is designed for spaced professional practice. It is distinct from the handbook’s chapters and APMG’s typical intensive-course duration.
01Start with a measurable scope and baseline
Reading connection: APM handbook chapters 3–4.
Connect the statement of work, work breakdown, responsibility and time-phased budget. The practical question is whether a team can explain exactly what has to be delivered before it claims progress. KBC’s proposed exercise starts with a partly defined project and asks you to identify the work-package information missing from the control structure, including ownership, completion evidence and the assumptions affecting the plan.
Apply it at work: Prepare a small performance-measurement baseline and work-package control sheet.
02Choose evidence that reflects achievement
Reading connection: APM handbook chapter 4, planning and earned-value techniques.
Explore how different types of work need different measurement approaches. You will compare tangible deliverables, milestone work and ongoing support activity, then defend a proposed way of recognising progress. In the KBC case, the team is tempted to report effort spent as achievement. You will test that claim and specify evidence that another reviewer could inspect without relying solely on optimism.
Apply it at work: Create progress rules and evidence requirements for contrasting work packages.
03Make the data tell a consistent story
Reading connection: APM handbook chapter 5, especially sections 5.3–5.5.
Examine coding, reporting dates, actual costs and the treatment of delayed financial information. The handbook explains why mismatched time periods can distort performance. KBC’s case includes completed supplier work with a late invoice. You will identify the reporting issue, document an appropriate estimated-cost process and explain how it should be reconciled when the actual charge arrives, avoiding duplicate or misleading costs.
Apply it at work: Complete a data-quality checklist and reconciliation log.
04Interpret the measures and challenge the forecast
Reading connection: APM handbook chapter 6, including schedule status, forecasts and reasonableness.
Use variances, performance indices and estimates at completion to investigate the position, then compare the result with the schedule and remaining-work evidence. The proposed exercise asks you to explain two plausible forecasts and the assumptions behind each. You will distinguish an earned-value signal from a full diagnosis, identify questions for the delivery team and recommend a proportionate management response.
Apply it at work: Produce a performance commentary with forecast assumptions and recommended actions.
05Protect the baseline and improve the system
Reading connection: APM handbook chapters 7–10.
Consider when a baseline change is justified, how risk affects the forecast and what a review should establish about control quality. KBC’s final case presents a request to reset the plan after poor performance. You will challenge the rationale, identify legitimate changes and recommend an auditable decision. The final review also asks what the organisation should improve before starting its next project.
Apply it at work: Write a baseline-change recommendation and a focused system-review checklist.
Learn around your working life
Time to understand. Space to apply.
Online or in a city near you
Face-to-face delivery can be arranged in London, Maidstone, Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds and Liverpool. Your course offer confirms the venue and teaching dates.
A London masterclass to start your module
Meet your tutors and fellow professionals at an optional full-day London event. KBC covers the event, agreed transportation, refreshments and an open buffet dinner. Confirm arrangements with the team before booking travel.
Support between sessions
Return to class recordings and learning resources, bring questions to your tutor and use free one-to-one tutoring and coaching support. Your course plan sets out the guided reading and practice needed alongside live teaching.
Your route to recognition
Know what the assessment involves.
KBC’s proposed assessment combines a worked performance report, a short interpretation briefing and a baseline-change case. APMG offers separate EVM Foundation and Practitioner certifications, supported by the APM handbook. Any external award requires the applicable assessment, rather than course attendance alone. The current public material accessed did not provide sufficient detail to verify question counts, timings or prerequisites, so these should be confirmed for the selected route before booking.
Your written offer records the award or course completion requirements, any examination fees included, and the relevant eligibility checks.
The professional knowledge behind the course
Explore the books and standards.
The learning themes above bring together the relevant guide, syllabus and workplace practice. KBC’s teaching sequence connects these ideas through discussion and application.
- Earned Value Management Handbook ↗Association for Project Management · March 2013, first edition; supplied member PDF ISBN 9781903494479; current paperback ISBN 9781903494509
Official EVM guide. Verified chapters 3–4 definition/planning, 5 data collection, 6 analysis/review/action, 7 change, 8 risk, 9 systems review and 10 learning.
- Earned Value Management certification ↗APMG International · Current public scheme checked 10 September 2026
Foundation and Practitioner routes; official supporting handbook; audience and study options.
Your investment
Get a course offer that fits your route.
Request the standalone fee for your chosen format, including the teaching, reading materials, assessment and membership arrangements relevant to this course.
Exploring the full PCP apprenticeship?
£27,000 apprenticeship funding + £7,000 additional IPC support. The IPC package covers professional examinations, memberships, graduation, Benenden Health membership, London masterclasses and agreed transport.
These figures relate to the complete Project Controls Professional apprenticeship. Standalone course fees are separate. The team confirms eligibility, any employer contribution and the contents of your written offer.
Explore the PCP pathway →Your questions, answered.
Is earned value only for large projects?
The handbook covers projects of different sizes. The control design should be proportionate to the work.
Do the indices predict the finish date by themselves?
No. Schedule logic, critical work and the remaining plan still need examination.
Will I need advanced mathematics?
The proposed work uses basic calculations; the greater emphasis is on data quality, interpretation and judgement.
What would this help you achieve?
Talk to KBC about your experience, your goals and the right learning route for you.