The PM Hut has a new area for trainers. At least, it was new back in January when Fadi told me about it. Now it has lots of trainers. Most of them are based in the US, but if you search there are a few from other locations. So if you are thinking of taking a training course, check out the trainers section for some ideas.
Personally, I wouldn’t choose a trainer from a site like this alone. I’m sure the trainers are all very good, well qualified and competent (I would say that – I’ve listed myself on there too!) but if you want to find a training course then it does pay to shop around. One of my colleagues has recently been looking into PRINCE2 residential courses and found huge discrepancies in cost. Money isn’t the only thing you’ll want to take into account. Also think about:
- location: will you have to travel to classes each day or will you stay on site? Residential courses remove you from the minutiae of daily life and can make it easier for you to study or prepare for classes in the evenings.
- exam guarantees: will your training company pay for resits if you fail?
- pass rates: what is the company’s pass rate for exams? Look for a company that is not afraid to share those figures with you.
- materials: what will they provide you with? If your trainer throws in copies of books of knowledge, manuals, crib sheets, CDs etc then you won’t have to fund these additional materials yourself. You’ll also find that learning from lots of different media helps it sink in, so look for someone that can train using various different tools, not just one ring binder of photocopied worksheets.
- enquiry handling: we are project managers, and we can’t help it, we expect other people to be organised. So how does the company handle your enquiry? I’m managing a little DIY project at home and the way different suppliers and tradesmen have responded (late quotes, not returning phone calls) have meant that they have lost business before they even got the job. Ring round your shortlist and compare how they handle your queries. It will tell you a lot about the efficiency of the organisation.
However, it’s often difficult to know where to start when you want a course, and the PM Hut trainer’s area is a great place to read more about what is on offer. You can check out the individual websites from the training companies and find someone with customer testimonials who appears to have an ethos that you could learn under. Courses are generally quite expensive and if you are picking up the tab yourself you want to make sure you get value for money. Actually, that applies even if you are spending your organisation’s money. You don’t want to waste your time on a course that doesn’t meet your needs, and it’s part of your department’s training budget down the drain. So shop around, use the internet to get as much information as you can and choose wisely.
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