Top firms ramp up support for chartered consulting award

EY and PwC are the latest large advisory brands to announce plans to bring thousands more consultants to enrol for the new Chartered Management Consultant Award.

Over the last five years, 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 – something the launch of the Chartered Management Consultant Award (ChMC) was targeted at remedying.

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.

The 2022 MCA Member Survey found that a growing number of consultants believe they will pursue chartered status. A majority of 73% of MCA leaders believe that chartered is very important or important to the industry’s future, while the responses also showed an uplift in the number of consultants who believe that there is more demand for training and skills development as firms adapt their training and onboarding due to hybrid working.

Tamzen Isacsson, CEO of the MCA, noted the organisation was “delighted that after a successful launch and pilot many leading firms in our sector are now offering this new important award to their people”. Ann Francke, CEO of the CMI meanwhile remarked that the enthusiasm with which the management consultant community has taken up the ChMC in just one year “has been extremely encouraging”, also stating she was “confident with CMI working with the MCA, we'll see further rapid increases." 

Further confirming this sea-change in attitudes toward chartered status in the sector, it has now been confirmed that major consulting firms EY and PwC are significantly increasing the number of experienced professionals and consultants studying for the ChMC, ahead of the first anniversary of its official launch.

All PwC’s consultants will henceforth be offered the opportunity to go for chartered status, while at EY, every graduate recruit will be backed to aim for the ChMC from this year onwards – making hundreds of new people eligible for the award every year.

Tracy Jackson, Consulting Learning Leader, EY, said, “Increasing significantly the number of our consultants who will be undertaking the Chartered Management Consultant award reflects EY’s continued focus on learning and is a reflection of our investment in career development. Hundreds of our consultants will be eligible for the award over the coming years including all new EY consulting graduate recruits as well as our experienced consultants.”

“This is an exciting time both for EY and the consulting sector as the growth of ChMC confirms the expertise, experience and talent there is within the profession.” 

EY, PwC, and eight other leading firms were all involved in the pilot stage in developing the award with the MCA and CMI. Other firms supporting the drive are IBM Consulting, KPMG, Arup and Arcadis, as well as many leading smaller consultancies.

Alwin Swales, Partner at PwC, added, “You can’t believe how much interest people have shown in the award. I have many inbound emails. I have people texting me and asking me ‘when is it my turn?’ and ‘Can I jump the queue please?’ It’s been seen as a massive investment into them. And it’s an investment because it acknowledges the skills that consultants have developed and the skill level they’ve attain over the years.” 

The full list of MCA member firms that have accreditation and/or assessments are:   

Akeso & Co
Arcadis
Arup
Atkins
Atos
BAE Systems Applied Intelligence
Cadence Innova
EY
Gobeyond Partners
IBM Services
Inner Circle
Ipsos Mori
KPMG
Mason Advisory
Moorhouse
Mott MacDonald
NECS Consultancy
NEL Healthcare Consulting
PPL
PwC
Unleash and Engage
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