The Chartered Management Consultant Award has achieved another milestone. More than 3,000 consultants are now on the path to obtaining the award, as the industry’s leading lights look to standardise its offerings, and ensure its clients get value for money.
Since 2017, the Management Consultancies Association (MCA) has been partnering with the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) to roll out a new qualification in the UK consulting sector.
The industry has traditionally come in for criticism for its lack of quality control and standardisation, and with the number of independent operators continuing to rise, the launch of the Chartered Management Consultant Award (ChMC) sought to re-assure clients of the value for money they get from consultants.
Since the launch of the new professional accreditation, demand for the ChMC has gone from strength to strength – as firms recognise it as a differentiating mark of quality that can help assure current and future clients of their offering.
As of September 2021, the CMI and MCA confirmed they were on the way to guiding a further 1,519 consultants through the journey to become Chartered – and that number has continued to rise since.
Now, the MCA and CMI have confirmed that the number of ChMC graduates has surpassed 600, while the number currently studying for it has spiked beyond the 3,000 mark. This is in part because 16 firms have now had their training and development schemes accredited, helping decentralise the dissemination of the ChMC programme.
With a further 10 such firms to be authorised to train and develop consultants in the near future, the number of chartered professionals is sure to spiral. This is especially the case as, alongside smaller firms like PPL and Akeso and Company, those authorised include giants like PwC, EY, KPMG, IBM Consulting, Arup and Moorhouse.
MCA Chief Executive, Tamzen Isacsson, noted, “It has been a really encouraging launch year for Chartered with major announcements by some of the world’s leading consulting brands who are committed to offering all their staff ChMC. Maintaining the highest of standards is vital to the future of the management consultancy industry which constantly needs to keep on the cutting edge of training and development and Chartered assures clients of those standards.”
Isacsson added that recent figures on attrition rates have shown the ChMC has become an important tool in attracting and retaining the most talented of staff to the profession. For firms that have offered ChMC to their people, some have experienced a 100% retention rate of people and others have experienced significantly lower attrition levels than industry averages.
At the same time, the ChMC has seen increased demand from young consultants. Reflecting this, the MCA and CMI are also launching an Associate Award for consultants to opt for earlier on during their career. This new award for young consultants is aimed to aid talent retention and maintain motivation of individuals on the journey towards Chartered status. The Associate award is for consultants who can demonstrate a minimum of 3 years of experience in management consulting and will provide added value and recognition of early achievement for individuals on an accredited programme which takes 5 years to complete.
Young MCA Chair and Senior Consultant at EY, Hassan Kamara, remarked, “For young consultants especially, a high-quality framework for learning, an accredited programme and Continuous Professional Development (CPD) are key drivers for developing a long-term career in consulting. The introduction of the Associate Chartered Management Consultant accreditation and the commitment from some of the industry’s leading firms to provide the Chartered opportunity to consulting graduates will play an important part in developing future skills and talent for the profession.”
