Monday

The Value of PM Certifications Confirmed

An International Project Management Association (IPMA) meeting at the end of March confirmed trends we have been experiencing with PMI credentials.

Despite savage cuts in corporate training and professional development budgets, interest in and demand for IPMA certification has continued its robust growth. Despite the tough economic climate, certification numbers grew by in excess of 20% last year and are expected to grow again by circa 25% in 2010.

Much of this demand is attributed to the fact that individuals are extremely conscious of their job stability in a rapidly changing work environment. Candidates are seeking to bolster their curriculum vitae in the most effective manner possible and are giving project management certification a big vote of confidence. In order to achieve this objective there has been a large shift to candidates self-funding. This finding from IPMA mirrors my findings published in my column in PMI’s PM Network magazine in August 2009 ‘Self-Starters’.

The continuing good news is the latest PMI Salary Survey, reported in April’s PMI Today newspaper shows a steady increase in salaries for qualified project managers and in the USA, Australia and a number of other countries, a $10,000 gap between PMP credential holders and unqualified project managers.

The with the evidence from IPMA supporting PMI’s findings, the message is clear: if you are interested in a successful project management career, holding a recognised credential is becoming essential.

The choice between IPMA’s competency based approach (including AIPM’s RegPM) and PMI’s knowledge based assessment is discussed in our January post, ‘The Value of your PMP Qualification’. An overview of the PMI framework with brief notes on other options can be found at http://www.mosaicprojects.com.au/Training-PMI_Framework.html.

One response to “The Value of PM Certifications Confirmed

  1. Pingback: Confirmado el valor de las certificaciones « Generationpm's Blog

Leave a comment