Why James became a Chartered Manager after 24 years in the army

James Bowman CMgr FCMI did the bare minimum at school. 

“Although at times I would be a high achiever in academic subjects that interested me, I left with next to no qualifications as soon as my CSE and O-Level exams were finished,” says James, who is development and transformation manager at Filey and Scarborough Primary Care Network within the NHS. 

He knew he was going to join the British Army from school, and was accepted at age 16. He loved his time there, especially the comradeship and travel. “I was lucky that I was sent all over the world. I had a wide and varied career and I would recommend the armed forces to anybody.” 

James knew it would come to an end eventually, however. He would have to retire and switch to a ‘normal’ career. To make the transition as smooth as possible, he decided to make sure he had qualifications to fall back on. 

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“I did the maximum possible time in the army: 24 years,” he explains. “It was a full military career, and I rose up the ranks, eventually finishing as a senior non-commissioned officer, staff sergeant, when I left.” 

Accolades and credibility

James wanted to do all of the available management qualifications while in the army to ensure he had skills he could use when he retired. In 1998, James undertook his first formal CMI management training, with a Level 3 in management, back when CMI was still called the British Institute of Management. 

“I thought that, if I could demonstrate my ability to learn, to professionally develop, that would give me more accolades and credibility to say, ‘I know what I’m doing’.” 

The qualification also strengthened James’s case that he was working to a set of values. 

“Obviously, in the Armed Forces, you work to values and standards all the time, but you want to make sure that, as a manager, you’re not doing something rogue,” he says. James needed to live up to the expectations of being a good manager.