A project management certification is an accreditation that showcases your skills in this field and can help you stand out from other potential employers. For example, you can potentially start a career as a project manager, operations manager, business analyst, and information services leader in a variety of sectors such as healthcare, finance, IT, and programming.
There are many organizations that provide this type of certification, including Project Management Professional or PMP certs. If you’re interested in this career, there are many courses that can help you prepare for a certification exam. The following information can help you identify a class that works well for your specific needs.
Top In-Person & Virtual Project Management Certification Classes
Project management certification classes focus on immersing you in this unique career field and helping you master its many facets. For example, a beginner-level course will teach you about project management basics and theories to give you a more in-depth understanding of how it operates. Furthermore, more advanced classes can help you better master project management and handle its unique needs. Thankfully, in-person and online project management certification courses are available across the nation that can help you pass your exam successfully.
Noble Desktop
Over the last 20+ years, Noble Desktop has carved a name for itself in the tech and business training industry. It provides hands-on training from certified experts either in its New York City training facility or in a live, online setting. Each of its courses include a free retake option, as well as expert instructors, setup assistance, and small class sizes that make learning more enjoyable. If you’re interested in project management, Noble Desktop has one class to consider.
PMP Certification Bootcamp
- Price: $799
- Duration: 35 hours
- Locations: NYC, Live Online
In this four-day class, you’ll get an immersive experience in project management that will help you pass the Project Management Professional or PMP test. During this class, you’ll study the various stages of project management, the 49 different processes that you may use, the 10 important knowledge areas of this field, and much more. You receive a prep guide and a video curriculum that you can follow at any time to improve your overall experience.
Project Management Certification Courses at New Horizons
New Horizons is a well-known training facility that focuses on IT, business, and leadership skills in a variety of markets. It focuses heavily on a forward-thinking setup that lets students integrate their personal knowledge base into an in-depth training environment. Furthermore, they can progress to things like coding, graphic design, cybersecurity, and project management careers. Their simple but effective certification class will help you prepare for a CompTIA certification, which is one of the better-known cert options available nationally.
CompTIA Project+ Certification
- Price: $2,475
- Duration: 5 days
- Locations: Several (see school website)
CompTIA Project+ Certification is a New Horizon course that will teach you the in-depth knowledge you need to get certified in project management. For example, you’ll learn about project life cycles, basic project planning steps, specific constraints to project management, communication skills, documentation, and other important abilities. In this way, you can advance your career successfully and become a skilled project manager. Note: you must take a certification exam after completion to get your full cert in this field.
Project Management Certification Courses at Learnit
Learnit provides an online training platform that focuses on supporting people from all walks of life. It has classes for people as young as middle schoolers and professional development support for established experts. You can choose from multiple fields, including math, business, web design, coding, and project management. Its online design lets you take whatever classes you want, which lets you pick multiple courses that suit your needs. As a result, Learnit is an excellent option for people interested in becoming a project management expert.
Project Management Professional (PMP)® Exam Prep Bootcamp
- Price: $2,295
- Duration: 4 days
- Locations: Live Online
In Project Management Professional (PMP)® Exam Prep Bootcamp, you’ll learn about important subjects like project management processes, planning project scope, and time management concepts. As you go through this four-day course, you’ll steadily advance in your knowledge base and feel prepared to take the PMP exam when you’re done. Then, you take a 200-question practice test that will gauge your readiness and ensure that you’re capable of taking and passing this exam. Note: completion is not a guarantee of exam success.
Project Management Certification Courses at ITTA
The International Teacher Academy (ITTA) is a unique training facility that focuses on teaching educators and teachers how to handle various tasks. For example, it can help you better understand things like teaching strategies, network security, and planning processes. It may also help you learn how to become a project manager through a PMI certificate that helps you master these skills and become more effective in this unique and demanding market. You may also use this certification to become a project manager professor.
PMI - Certified Associate Project Manager
- Price: $4,040
- Duration: 5 days
- Locations: Geneva, Lausanne, Live Online
In this five-day course, you can earn a PMI Certified Associate Project Manager certification by learning about important areas like scope, time, quality, cost, communication, risks, integration, procurement, and human resources. Once you complete this class, you can take the CAPM certification and potentially pass. Each course includes online support from a variety of professors and can get you internationally certified in this skill. Though its in-person classes are limited to overseas options, the live courses are available to anyone interested.
Key Information about Learning Project Management Certification
When starting your project management certification program, it’s a good idea to understand a few key points first. These include things like skills you’ll practice and master in your certification program, as well as tools you might need to start. Furthermore, you also need to consider the time and cost investments, as these can impact what program you choose. Here are a few things to keep in mind when starting your next big educational adventure:
- Project Planning: As a project manager, you’ll learn every step involved with this process, including the initiation, budgeting, execution, and controlling of your task. You’ll also learn how to bring it to a conclusion to ensure that it’s handled smoothly and efficiently. These unique skills help you handle diverse tasks and ensure that you’re comfortable in many markets.
- Risk Management: Every project has various inherent risks that can affect how well it runs. You need to understand these and plan around them as a project manager. For instance, if a project has the risk of running over budget, you need to find ways to decrease your costs. In fact, general budgeting skills are important to possess as a project manager.
- Cost and Time Estimations: Projects typically have varying cost and time estimates that you need to understand how to make. For instance, it’s critical to know how to estimate the full length of planning and executing a task, as well as how much money will be spent. General accounting skills can help improve your overall experience as a project manager.
- Communication: Skillful communication is critical in every field and is particularly important in project management. Simply put, you need to create intensive and effective communication channels from shareholders to managers and beyond. Producing and maintaining these connections can make your overall planning process much more effective.
- Business and Management Principles: Even if you’re not a business manager, you do need to know some basic business management principles. For example, it’s important to know how to delegate tasks and create teams that work strongly together. Thankfully, your training course should help make it easier for you to identify your options here.
- Tech Requirements: If you’re taking online project certification courses, you need a computer that can handle your streaming and learning platform. Furthermore, you’ll also need a strong internet connection that won’t go out of commission during a lesson. Thankfully, in-person classes typically eliminate these needs by providing you with the tools for learning.
- Project Management Software: There are many types of project management software that may help streamline your career. For example, Microsoft Spaces and Google Workspace can help you plan your projects and keep track of your various employees. These are just two options, so make sure that you do your research and find a few that make sense for you.
- Cost and Time Investment: You’ll typically spend anywhere from $299 to over $4,000 on a project management certification course. The higher prices are typically reserved for classes with more intensive schedules or advanced lessons. Time investment may include anywhere from one day to five, though it may take several months to learn this skill’s base tasks
The great thing about a certification class is that they’ll prepare you for these different specialized skills, ensuring that you understand them more fully. Your teacher will help you understand each topic and provide in-depth information about each to make them easier to grasp. As a result, you shouldn’t feel lost or confused during your course. If you do get confused, let your teacher know and they can adjust their teaching method or provide a more one-on-one environment that suits your specific learning style and personal needs.
Career Paths & Job Outlook for Project Management Certification
Here are a few jobs with potential earnings that may use project management certifications:
- Project Managers: As a project manager, you’ll oversee your employer’s projects and make sure they stay on task, and you’ll earn a median salary of $95,370 doing it.
- IT Leader: As an IT professional, you’ll make about $159,010 every year and may use various project management steps to ensure that you finish your tasks on time.
- Marketing Planner: Every ad campaign you make may require project management skills in this highly paid ($133,380 median) and in-demand career.
- Operations Expert: Business operation specialists may use project managing skills when handling a variety of tasks and earn about $75,990 annually.
- Construction Manager: Construction managers use project management certifications to better plan their projects and make a median salary of about $98,890 nationally.
What Can You Do With Project Management Certification?
After you complete your project management certification, you may be at a loss as to your career’s next few steps. It’s understandable that you might feel a little lost because this career includes many in-depth job roles that may require a lot of careful consideration to manage. Thankfully, your training should streamline this process for you and give you the support that you need. Just a few things you’ll likely do with this certification include:
- Create Comprehensive Project Plans: Your most important role as a certified project manager is to create project plans using tools like Microsoft Project, Asana, and Trello. Your plans should include everything relevant to its execution, including potential costs and time estimates.
- Define Project Metrics: Every project you execute will need specific metrics that you must define and measure in various ways. Typically, methodologies like Scrum, Lean, and Agile all help project managers better handle their project’s unique demands.
- Control Project Risk: All project managers look to reduce the risks of each project using various mitigation techniques. Tools like Risky Register and Pertmaster help you identify potential problems, eliminate them, or mitigate their risk as much as possible with various management techniques.
- Create Great Work Teams: All of your projects will need a specific team and sub-teams to handle various tasks. You need the ability to carefully identify who works together the best, what roles each employee handles the most effectively, and create communication options that keep everyone on task.
- Ensure Higher Quality: As your project develops, you need to install various quality-control techniques that help you keep on top of its issues. Charts can help describe its progress to your shareholders, while correction techniques can ensure that it stays on task.
These different tasks all help project managers control the full scope of a project and ensure that it executes smoothly. The goal of your training is to get you ready to handle these tasks quickly and efficiently. Thankfully, you won’t be alone if you find a job after completing your training. That’s because there are many tools that you can use before and after your certification that will ensure you stay on top of your tasks with minimal effort.
Top Project Management Certification Tools For Beginners
The project management field features many unique tools that make this process a lot easier. Though you may take some time to perfect your understanding of your job’s many tasks, you can use high-quality assistance to ensure that your work goes smoothly. Furthermore, these items can even help expert project managers do a more effective job running their tasks. Some of the most common options that you’re going to run into in this field include:
- Microsoft Project, which helps with monitoring project variables like resources, costs, and tasks
- Workzone, which helps with task assignment, file sharing, and project status tracking
- ProjectManager.com, an online tool that helps with planning and scheduling projects
- Trello, another web-based project management program that helps you track projects with cards
- JIRA, which tracks bugs, issues, and helps improve team performance and effectiveness
- Slack, a popular work communication and team collaboration platform that helps organize tasks
- Asana, a project management tools that breaks down tasks into smaller steps
- Basecamp, which lets you manage remote teams more effectively
- Zoho Projects, which improves team collaboration through various online tools
- ProofHub, a project planning suite that includes Gantt charts and Kanban boards
Project Management Certification Comparison to Other Tools & Fields
If you’re struggling to understand the differences between project management and other related fields, you’re not alone. Many of the tasks you’ll perform probably sound pretty similar to other careers. That said, there is a pretty big difference between these job roles, which are important to understand if you’re interested in any of these fields. Here are a few that might interest you, including in-depth explanations of how they vary from each other:
- Business Administration: This career field is somewhat similar to project management but is typically focused more on general business management. While you might still work within planning projects and executing them properly, you’ll also focus on more general concepts. Simply put, business admins have a broader scope within their field.
- Operations Management: Operations management focuses specifically on improving the efficiency and effectiveness of various operations within your organization. It may use concepts like Agile and Scrum, as does project management, but it also has a broader scope. It’s focused more on the whole business, rather than on a specific task.
- System Analysis: While system analysis is pretty similar to operations management, it focuses more on specific systems within an organization. It’s more analytical than operations management and focuses on challenging theoretical concepts. It’s closer to project management than other tasks but still focuses on business-wide concepts.
- Programming: Yes, you might have to use some general programming skills as a project manager, such as JavaScript, Java, Python, and SQL. The latter two languages particularly benefit project managers because they’re so suited to data management. That said, you will typically only have somewhat limited programming skills as a project manager.
Note that experience in any of these fields might help you when getting project management certification. For example, knowledge of business administration or operations planning may include concepts very similar to project management. However, going through certification will help solidify your knowledge of their differences and make it easier for you to transition into the unique demands of project management with less difficulty.
Project Management Certification Advantages
While it’s true that some people start a project management career without getting certification, it’s usually not a great idea. That’s because you get so many advantages with a certification, even if you’ve already completed an intensive college degree. Often, they build on your college career and make it easier for you to actualize project management theories. Just a few reasons that you might want to work your way through a certification course include how it can:
- Improve Career Opportunities: Are you trying to advance further in a project management field? A certification proves that you have the experience necessary to handle this role’s career demand. Just as importantly, you will be better equipped to handle its many unique requirements and feel more comfortable working on a major project.
- Enhance Strategic Planning: A major part of your certification will center on teaching you better strategic planning skills. For example, you’ll learn how to handle every step of a project’s implementation to ensure that it goes smoothly. This training will help you feel more comfortable with your job duties and give you the help you need to succeed.
- Increase Execution Accuracy: When project managing, you need to make sure that you execute every step as accurately as possible. Getting a high-quality certification can improve your precision and ensure that you get everything right. For example, it can teach you steps for tracking your project’s progress and avoiding common mistakes and issues.
- Help You Stand Out: Project management is a very in-demand field and there’s a good chance that you’re going to be competing with many people when applying for a job. Thankfully, certifications can help by showcasing your professional-level skills, giving you an extra title, and ensuring that your potential employers know exactly what they’re getting with you.
- Better Your Knowledge Base: Are you interested in learning more about various subjects within project management? A certification immerses you in these concepts and makes it easier for you to transition to a different field. In this way, they’re particularly helpful if you have experience in a similar management-style job but not as much in project support.
- Expand Potential Job Options: You might run into a situation in which a potential employer demands that you have a certification. For example, some businesses require specific project management certifications: without one, you simply can’t work for them. Getting one or more certifications in this field can help improve your chances of getting a job you love.
You will receive benefits like these no matter what certification route you take. That’s because project management certifications are typically all respected equally, though some organizations and employers may prefer specific options. Make sure you know which choice makes the most sense for you and to reach out to a training team to get the support that you need. As a result, it’s important to do your research, figure out which makes the most sense for you, and complete the in-depth training required to get a high-quality certification.
Learn more in these courses
- Project Management Certification
- Project Management Courses
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Project Management Bootcamp
- Weekdays only
- 12 hours
- Open to beginners
Start your journey to become a project managener in this two-day bootcamp. Learn the five phases of a project, project management tools, and strategies to make you a successful project manager.