Practising Management Consultants

What is Practising Management Consultant (PMC) Certification Scheme?
The PMC Certification Scheme is a structured, industry-led certification system for management consultants. The scheme is a formal endorsement of a consultant’s professionalism, credibility and quality and is an assurance to companies, especially Small and Medium enterprises (SMEs), that the consultant they engage is competent and reliable.
Why is there a need for PMC certification?
The certification scheme was introduced to address the concerns of companies that had issues with the varying degree of competency levels among the consultants they had engaged. The rigour of the certifying process will raise the management consulting industry standards in Singapore. This will also help companies, especially SMEs with limited resources, to choose the right consultants to suit their needs.
What are the main features of the PMC Certification Scheme?
It is tied to individual consultants. While there are certification schemes for consulting companies, the certification is tied to an individual consultant for accountability, and compliance to strict professional standards of conduct and code of ethics. It allows for the PMC Certification Board to inform government agencies regarding any serious breach of standard of conduct and ethics. The scheme does not however certify the technical and domain knowledge of the consultants.

It is aligned to international standards. The scheme adheres to international standards and best practices such as the ISO/IEC 17024 standard on accreditation requirements for entities performing certification functions. The requirements include not linking the certification to any membership and separation of the certification function from the training of consultants to prepare for certification.

It is fully supported by government agencies. The scheme has the support of SPRING Singapore, International Enterprise (IE) Singapore and Singapore Workforce Development Agency (WDA).

It is administered independently to add rigour. The scheme is overseen by a PMC Certification Board which functions independently from all organisations and government agencies and makes the final decision on all applications for certification. The Certification Board comprises members from the private sector, government and the academia. No member of the Board is a practising consultant to ensure impartiality of decision.
How is the Institute of Management Consultants (IMC) related to the PMC Certification Board?
The PMC Certification Board is constituted under IMC. However, the Board operates independently from IMC and has full authority on persons to be certified as PMCs. Such a demarcation of roles is in line with international standards and best practices, and adds credibility to the certification process.