Project Management Qualifications – Enhance Your Project Management Career
Project management qualifications send two clear signals to potential employers; candidate’s skills, experience and an understanding of the industry, as well as their commitment and dedication to it as a career path. While you might not consider relevant qualifications to be totally necessary, they do demonstrate skills and ability and often are a prerequisite for increased pay and promotions.
It can’t be denied, that there’s no replacement for proven experience, but many employers of project managers demand that they fulfil certain relevant qualifications in order to ascend the hierarchy of the company. Experience is one of the key factors in determining a managers salary in an organisation, but it is qualifications which really open up the possibilities of promotion. Entry-level managers should expect lower pay why they learn the ropes. It is common for managers to receive performance-related pay in the form of bonuses awarded for the successful completion of projects.
If you’re a budding young project manager then qualifications are a great way of enhancing your career progression. They are likely to both increase your chances of obtaining a job, and to receive increased pay and promotions once you are employed. You might find that some general project management training will help introduce you the key elements of the profession, including people skills, processes, management and risk assessment.
APM Training helps managers to apply a framework to the management of projects, and helps formalise their approach. This framework is based on the APM’s Body of Knowledge which is widely recognised in the UK and Europe. This can be a good certificate to get if you intend to work for a company or organisation based in the UK which doesn’t have a strict set of processes already in place help managers plan and execute projects.
PMI certification also provides this kind of framework to help understand the management of projects, but their Body of Knowledge is globally recognised, used across many continents. If you currently work or intend to work at a global company with offices throughout the world, it can help to learn the PMI way of project management, so an international team can speak the same language.
Prince2 qualifications teach a prescribed methodology to project managers, and are well-known and respected throughout the world. The Prince2 management style works well in IT organisations and is widely used. There are also other types of project management qualifications available including P3O, MSP and MOR.
Bill Weston writes on a number of subjects including apmp for prince2 practitioners, apmp courses and project management skills
