A project management professional (PMP) can enjoy the benefits of an amazing career, excellent salary and continuous job growth. PMPs are in high demand currently, and the position is expected to increase over the next decade. The initial certification is acquired through an assortment of factors such as education, examination and job experience. However it doesn’t end there, as once you hold this important credential, you’ll need to follow-up with the necessary requirements and get re-certified every three years.
What is a Project Management Professional?
One of the most prestigious certificates that you can hold in the project management field is a PMP certification. This certificate is good for three years and begins the moment that you’ve completed your exam. In order to gain your re-certification, you need to earn the appropriate professional development units or PMP PDU to maintain your certificate. After all of this hard work, you don’t want to let this slip through the cracks or leave everything until 6 months prior to its expiration. During this three year cycle, you’ll have plenty of time to earn your 60 PDUs if you go about it responsibly. To find out how you can become a better project manager click here.
Re-certification Requirements
You’ll find an assortment of ways to earn your re-certification requirements such as online courses, seminars, volunteering and through your daily PMP profession. Most individuals can earn 5 PDUs each year or 15 per cycle just by doing your job. For project management professionals, this means that you can earn approximately 25 percent of the required 60 at no cost.
In order to earn another 25 percent, you can attend seminars, lectures, events and meetings that pertain to project management. If you make a point to attend five lectures, at one hour a piece, you can get another 15 PDUs under your belt. Other notable factors for earning more PDUs include world-wide events and seminars. They may cost a little more, but you’ll be able to earn PDUs and gain substantial knowledge necessary for your career.
Volunteering is another way to earn credits. This can be done by offering your professional expertise to groups or organizations outside of your work environment. For PMPs who mentor or conduct research for their job supervisor, this falls under the self-learning category, and you can earn additional credits through coaching sessions and sitting in on audits.
Online courses have become one of the more popular ways of earning PDUs, simply because they offer flexible learning which can be done to fit around work and home life. The best courses are instructor led, ensuring you have a PMP professional available to you whenever you need to discuss the coursework. With online courses you typically earn one PDU for each hour of study and each course is usually designed to be completed within a set number of hours, for instance a course which takes 25 hours to complete will earn you 25 PDUs.
Submitting the Appropriate Documentation
As soon as you earn your PDUs, you need to submit them immediately and send on the necessary paperwork that supports your claims. If you mentor other employees on the job, you need to have a supervisor or mentee sign the document and include the dates and number of hours that you worked with them. If you attend seminars or online courses, make sure to include the registration form, and the payment voucher.
Maintaining your PMP certification allows you to take your job to the next level and experience job growth. Not only is it a great way to acquire new skills, you’ll be able to enhance the talents you already have in relation to management, leadership, communication and more.
Author Georgina Clatworthy is a freelance writer who writes regularly on topics relating to online learning and career development courses. Learning online has become a popular way to enhance career opportunities whilst staying within an existing job role. For those project management professionals needing to earn PMP PDU for re-certification, online courses offer a flexible means of earning the necessary units whilst also offering the means to enhance knowledge and skills at the same time.