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Project Management Certification

There are many different options available if you wish to obtain formal project management certification. You can obtain project management certification at a number of different of professional levels, all of which will require different amounts of study in order to receive certification.

For those who are considering their options to obtain project management certification, you should know there are a number of different of training options. You can study through a company organized training program, which is based on site at your own company, or you can attend external training at an approved institutions offering project management certification. Yet another option  is to study online using one of a number of companies or educational institutions.

There are three main choices when wishing to study for professional project management certification the choice depends on where you will be studying for certification and probably more important where you think that you will actually be working in project management. If studying in the United States and Canada, certification from the Project Management Institute (PMI) is the most prevalent organization offering certification. When studying for certification in the UK there are two main professional certification organizations. The first is PRINCE2, which is run by the Association of Project Management Group Limited. In the final six months of 2005 over 60% of all project management jobs required PRINCE2 project management certification as a key skill. The second UK organization is the Association for Project Management; the Association for Project Management offer a range of professional certification courses.

Project Management Institute (PMI)

The Project Management Institute (PMI) in the United States offers five different levels of certification. PMI boasts over 400,000 project management certificate holders worldwide, meaning the credentials you obtain from PMI are valued globally. Two of the most popular certificate programs offered by PMI are the Certified Associate in Project Management certificate (CAPM) and the Project Management Professional (PMP) certificate. The CAPM is an entry level qualification which is exam based and requires 1500 hours of work in a project team. It demonstrates knowledge of processes and terminology. The PMP level is exam based and requires 7500 hours experience in a senior position and 60 months project management experience. It demonstrates an understanding of the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK).

PRINCE2

PRINCE2 was originally developed as a methodology used by the UK Government to manage ICT Projects but has now been adopted by the private sector as the standard for project management across other industries in addition to ICT. Due to its popularity PRINCE2 is now also widely used across Europe and Australia and APM Group Limited has offices in USA, Japan, India and China.  PRINCE2 is also becoming the international standard for professional project management around the world.

PRINCE2 certification is available at two levels; Foundation level and Practitioner Level. Both of the levels involve an examination and the Foundation level indicates that you know how PRINCE2 works, whilst the Practitioner level shows knowledge of how to apply PRINCE2 to projects.

Association for Project Management

The Association for Project Management offers four course levels of project management certification, the APM Introductory Certificate in Project Management, APMP, APM Practitioner Qualification and Certificated Project Manager (CPM).

These are the three main organizations that offer project management certification and the primary certification course options that they have available to study. However, there are many additional project management certificate training courses available online. Online programs are often more affordable and have more flexible schedules than the above mentioned programs, so you may wish to compare the many different online programs available to the above mentioned options before making your final decision.

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