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Improve Your Project Management: Project management training

by Phil Baguley

When the word ‘training’ gets used in the workplace it almost always refers to the process that is followed when you or I set out to acquire the KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS and COMPETENCIES that we need to carry out our workplace roles. The ways in which we do that can vary enormously. They can, for example, involve on-the-job training that takes place in the workplace, or off-the-job training that takes place remote from normal work situations. Project management TRAINING uses both of these. It can, for example, involve:

full-time study for university undergraduate and postgraduate courses in project management
part-time study for certificates and diplomas that are validated by the Association for Project Management (APM), Project Management Institute (PMI) and Information Systems Examination Board (ISEB).

It can also involve attendance at special courses that are aimed, for example, at turning you into a qualified PRINCE2 practitioner, or giving you and in-depth knowledge of project risk assessment and management.

But project management training does not always need to be as formal as this. You can also gain knowledge and develop skills by using blogs and podcasts about project management, reading books and attending the meetings of your professional project management association. And, of course, you can also expand and add to your project management skills and knowledge by actually doing it – being a project manager. Finally, project audits and post-project appraisals enable you to decide where you got it right and, just as important, where you got it wrong in your project management.


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