Project management courses and training

The best project management course for beginners would be a 1-day introduction to project management course. On this training course you learn the basic terminology and concepts of project management. You don’t need any previous experience of being a project manager.

After taking the 1-day course, and you later wanted to get a professional project manager qualification you could consider taking a PRINCE2 Foundation course, or APM Project Fundamentals Qualification course from the Association for Project Management (APM) in the UK.

If you are based in the UK, then the best qualification for beginner project managers is either PRINCE2 Foundation, or APM Project Fundamentals Qualification (PFQ).

Both of these are entry-level qualifications to the project manager profession. To pass either of the exams for these qualifications, you must show an understanding of key project management areas such as planning, quality, business case, risk, managing change and issues.

Both exams contain multiple-choice questions and courses can be taken online as self-study e-learning courses, or online in virtual classroom, or live classroom training courses with professional instructors.

If you are based outside of Europe, then the best project management qualification for beginner project managers would be the Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM)^® from the Project Management Institute (PMI)^®.

The best project management credentials in the UK depends upon your existing experience and qualifications.

Beginner project managers should choose either the PRINCE2 Foundation certification or the APM PFQ (Project Fundamentals Qualification).

If you work in an agile project environment, then you have 2 alternatives. You could take either the PRINCE2 Agile Foundation certification, or the Agile Project Management (AgilePM) Foundation qualification.

If you already have a project manager qualification, then you should consider these options:

The best project management qualification depends upon several factors – what you hope to do with it, and where you want to use it.

Let’s take location first. Undoubtedly, the most popular professional qualification in the UK, Europe, and Australia is PRINCE2. In most of the rest of the world, qualifications from the Project Maznagement Institute (PMI)^® are more popular.

So, if you intend to seek work anywhere outside the UK, Europe or Australia, then get yourself certified in one of the two PMI qualifications: Project Management Professional (PMP)^®, or Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM)^®.

If you intend working in Europe, get yourself certified in PRINCE2, and if you intend working in the UK, get certified at both PRINCE2 Practitioner and APM Project Management Qualification (PMQ) levels.

Note: the APM qualifications align with the IPMA^® Level A, Level B, Level C, and Level D qualifications. IPMA^® is a registered trademark of IPMA in Switzerland and other countries.

Project management courses are available to study online in PRINCE2, PRINCE2 Agile, Agile Project Management (AgilePM), APM PFQ and APM PMQ, and PMI CAPM^® and PMP^®.

Whether you study online depends upon whether you prefer to self-study. Learning from home with a project management course is great if you cannot travel to a classroom course, for example you live a long way from a classroom course venue.

Studying online will also save you money. Online courses are often cheaper than classroom courses, and you don’t need to spend money on hotels or transport.

Plus, you can study at your own pace, in your own time, so you build your study plan entirely based upon your own needs.

Learning project management online typically requires from 12 to 35 hours study time in the case of a PRINCE2 Foundation and Practitioner course. So, if you are planning on getting your 35 PDUs so you can apply to the PMI for your PMP^® credentials, an online PRINCE2 Practitioner course will help you meet the criteria.

Project management courses are available in many UK cities including: Aberdeen, Belfast, Birmingham, Bournemouth, Bradford, Brighton, Bristol, Cambridge, Cardiff, Coventry, Derby, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Leicester, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Milton Keynes, Newcastle, Northampton, Nottingham, Oxford, Plymouth, Reading, Sheffield, Southampton, Sunderland, Swansea, Telford. Courses are also available in Dublin, Ireland.

Project management courses also take place in virtual classrooms. All virtual classroom courses use the latest digital learning technology. In a virtual learning environment, you can take advantage of the latest educational technology and software such as online chat, interactive whiteboards, video, quizzes, and online feedback.

All your need to access a virtual classroom is an internet connection, a computer and web browser. It’s a modern form of distance education, but instead of submitting essays, you interact in real-time with your instructor and other students – just like you would in a real classroom. You can take your exams online at the end of the training.

This list of project manager qualifications might not be an exhaustive list, but it is nevertheless quite comprehensive. It also includes closely related subjects such as programme management, portfolio management, and project management offices (PMOs).