This unit equips learners with the knowledge and skills needed to support the planning, delivery, and monitoring of workplace projects. Learners will explore the project lifecycle, team roles, tools and techniques, and approaches to managing resources, risks, and quality.
In short
Unit 306 Developing project management skills is an optional Level 3 unit covering the project lifecycle, roles, tools, risk and quality management, then applying them to a real project. Criterion 4.5 requires you to contribute to monitoring a budget, so check you have budget access before choosing it.
Level
RQF Level 3
Credit value
5 credits
Guided learning
30 hrs
Assessment criteria
15 criteria
To achieve unit 306 your portfolio must evidence every assessment criterion below. There is no exam and no written assignment — you demonstrate each criterion using evidence from your own work.
Learning outcome 1
Explain the key stages in the lifecycle of a project
What this covers: Key stages: initiation, planning, execution, monitoring and control, closure and evaluation.
Summarise the key roles and responsibilities in a project team
Learning outcome 2
Describe project management tools and their application
What this covers: Project management tools: business case, project initiation document (PID), PESTLE, SWOT, work breakdown structures (WBS), PERT diagrams, SMART objectives, Gantt charts, plan on a page, communication plan, RACI matrix.
Explain how to manage resources within a project
What this covers: Resources: people, technology, equipment, budget, time.
Describe the risks and issues within a project and how they can impact project outcomes
What this covers: Risks and issues: scope, time, cost, quality, resources.
Describe different risk analysis tools/techniques used within a project
What this covers: Risk analysis tools/techniques: SWOT analysis, risk log/register, Fishbone/Ishikawa, RAG rating, risk matrix, brainstorming, 5 whys, checklists, assumption analysis, cause and effect diagrams, affinity diagram.
Explain how to use project management tools to monitor progress and performance of a project
What this covers: Project management tools: work breakdown structures (WBS), PERT diagrams, SMART objectives, Gantt charts.
Learning outcome 3
Define 'project quality management'
Describe different project quality management approaches and their uses
What this covers: Approaches: total quality management (TQM), Six Sigma, lean management, ISO Standards, agile methodology.
Learning outcome 4
Apply project management tools to deliver a project against targets
Evidence requirement: Evidence must include at least two different project management tools applied from any of the following: business case, project charter, project initiation document (PID), PESTLE, SWOT, work breakdown structures (WBS), PERT diagrams, SMART objectives, Gantt charts, plan on a page, communication plan, RACI matrix, risks and issues log/register.
Use management tools to organise and manage resources to ensure milestones are achieved
Evidence requirement: Evidence must include at least two examples.
Identify risks and issues
Evidence requirement: Evidence must include at least two identified risks and issues.
What this covers: Risks and issues may be at any stage or part of the project and may include but not be limited to: performance, scope, quality, financial or technological.
Monitor progress and performance against targets
Evidence requirement: Evidence should include at least two examples of monitoring.
Contribute to the monitoring of a budget within a project
Contribute to the evaluation of a project
Written by our assessment team: what the criteria mean in practice, the evidence that works, and where learners get caught out.
Unit 306 is a four-outcome unit where the knowledge is broad but the practical part is bounded: LO4 asks you to contribute to delivering a project against targets, not to run a programme. "Contribute to" is deliberate — you can evidence this as a project team member or workstream lead, not only as the project manager.
Two constraints to check before you choose it. Criterion 4.5 requires you to contribute to the monitoring of a budget within a project, so you need visibility of some financial figure. And criterion 4.6 requires you to contribute to the evaluation of a project, which means it has to finish — or at least reach a reviewable milestone — inside your enrolment.
| Learning outcome | Evidence that works well |
|---|---|
| LO1 — lifecycle and roles | The lifecycle stages as your organisation runs them, plus the roles named in the spec guidance: project board member, sponsor, project manager, team lead, team member, subject matter experts, administrator |
| LO2 — deliver against targets | Tools and their application, resource management, risks and issues, risk analysis techniques, and how tools are used to monitor progress |
| LO3 — quality management | A definition of project quality management and the approaches your sector uses |
| LO4 — contribute to delivery | The actual artefacts: plan or Gantt chart, RAID or risk log, milestone tracking, budget monitoring you contributed to, and the closing review |
The strongest 306 portfolios are mostly artefacts with short commentaries. A Gantt chart with your annotations of where it slipped and what you did evidences 4.1 and 4.4 in a page. A risk register with dates showing when each risk was raised, scored and mitigated evidences 4.3 far better than prose describing risk in the abstract.
Criterion 2.4 asks for risk analysis tools and techniques, so name and use specific ones rather than talking generally about risk. Probability-and-impact scoring, a risk matrix, RAG rating, a RAID log, root-cause techniques such as five whys or a fishbone diagram all qualify — and the honest observation that your organisation scores risk by judgement rather than by formal probability is worth making if it is true.
For quality (LO3), distinguish the three things learners routinely merge: quality planning (what "good" means for this project, agreed up front), quality control (checking the output against it), and quality assurance (checking the process that produces it). If your sector works to a standard — ISO 9001, a client specification, a regulatory requirement — anchor the answer there.
Unit aim: This unit equips learners with the knowledge and skills needed to support the planning, delivery, and monitoring of workplace projects. Learners will explore the project lifecycle, team roles, tools and techniques, and approaches to managing resources, risks, and quality.
Unit guidance: AC1.3 Key roles: project board member, project sponsor, project manager, project team lead, project team member, specialists/subject matter experts, project administrator.
Suggested learning resources: These suggestions are current at the time of publication. The following resources are provided as guidance only. Centres should select current and relevant resources and encourage learners in self-guided reading. Managing projects (ILM eWorkbook), City & Guilds/ILM ILM eWorkbooks ILM developing management skills: Workbook, BPP Learning Media AbeBooks UK
All evidence for the skills learning outcomes must be generated in the workplace or a realistic working environment, and must be valid and attributable to you.
This unit sits in the ILM Level 3 Leadership and Management suite (8723) and counts towards the pathways below, from £449.
No. LO4 asks you to contribute to delivering a project against targets, so evidence as a workstream lead or project team member is acceptable — provided your contribution is attributable to you.
Criterion 4.5 requires you to contribute to monitoring a budget within a project, so you need visibility of some financial figure — even a small equipment or resource line. Without it, another optional unit is a safer choice.
Yes. Unit 306 is a mandatory unit — every learner on the relevant pathway must complete it.
Assessment is a portfolio of evidence, centre-devised and internally set and marked. There are no exams and no written assignments.
All evidence for the skills learning outcomes must be generated in the workplace or a realistic working environment, and must be valid and attributable to you. Workplace documents, projects, reflective accounts, observation records and witness testimonies are all valid sources.
It counts towards the Level 3 Award, Level 3 Certificate, Level 3 Diploma, Level 3 Extended Diploma.
