Two teams from Bedfordshire, totalling 12 MSc Project Management students, faced corporate members of the APM including the Nationwide Building society and communications giant Thales.

Available categories were for the best overall project, best presentation and best poster, with half of the University cohort claiming victory in the latter. Bedfordshire was also the only university to reach the final.

Working around the theme of ‘Communications’, the teams had to plan, produce and deliver a project before and during the final of the competition.

The first group, Team Beds, developed a platform to enhance communications between prospective and existing master's students. The project feeds into the recently launched Postgraduate Mentoring Scheme

Group two and the winners of the poster competition, dubbed Team ComPro, created an events calendar to integrate into the new student app, myBeds. The addition will present users with a calendar to keep track of university events and activities.

Team leader of Team Beds, Sam Mahmud, spoke of his pride at representing the University:

“The APM challenge has been a great experience for me and my team. In addition to personal development, the experience has opened fantastic opportunities for us.

“We learned about applying all of the tools and techniques of project management that we learned at the University. Overall, we think the course at Bedfordshire helped us become what we are today and we are proud to represent the University in this competition.”

Both teams received high praise for their performances during the competition, with particular attention paid to their creativity in representing figures through graphic images, and the quality of their original submissions.

Maya Creasey, Branch Administrator for the APM, stated:

“I wish both teams every success as the next generation in the project management field. They are all a huge credit to themselves and also the University.”

Run by the Thames Valley branch of the APM, the Challenge is in its fourth year and aimed at people at an early stage of their project management careers. The competition has previously included entrants from a number of corporate members within the region, of which there are over 2,500.