Is It Time Your Project Managers Got Certified?

Statistics show that PM certification brings a lot of positive things. Here we look at those statistics to help you decide if it is time for your PM's to get certified.

Project management courses are important, there's no getting around it, whether your preferred approach is APMP, PRINCE2, PMP or agile, However, if you are looking at becoming a project manager, project management training is readily available in classrooms and online, so it's not difficult to get the certification you need. Where it gets more difficult is when you work for an organisation and they don't offer any certification. Perhaps you work as a PM in a department and don't know how to approach them about getting certified. Perhaps you manage a department and are looking into getting some of your staff certified. Whatever your reasons for looking into certification, these statistics from Wrike might help you decide what your next steps are:

"61% of project management practitioners say their organisation currently offers ongoing project management training for staff."

Over half of organisations offer ongoing project management training for their staff. This is fantastic news, and means that plenty of organisations value their staff enough to provide them with continuous development opportunities.

"PM Certification by Department:

37% say their entire IT department is certified.

33% say IT department managers are certified.

26% say Business managers are certified.

25% say Business staff is certified (both managers and non-managers).

10% say Executive managers are certified.

29% say no one on staff is certified."

The last statistic is the most shocking. 29% say no one on their staff is certified, which begs the question - why not? Certification provides benefits for the staff, organisation and the customers - why haven't those organisations recognised that yet?

"Types of Project Management Training Offered by Organisations:

Classroom setting – 28%

Online self-paced course – 24%

Online situational sessions – 18%

Paper-based self-studies – 16%

All of the above – 13%

Other – 1%"

It is no surprise that the most traditional form of training - classroom based training - is still the most popular because old habits die hard and many people haven't recognised the benefits of alternative forms of learning yet. However, online training provides a cheaper, quicker, more easily tracked, flexible type of training that suits any organisation. It's particularly useful for organisations hiring remote workers. Eventually, it will be the most popular form of training used.

Last but not least, the following statistics are probably the most interesting and exciting:

"Project Management Professional (PMP)® certified project managers in the U.S. earned an average of 16% more (approximately $14,500) than their non-credentialed peers in 2011.

80% of "high-performing" projects are led by a certified project manager."

If you are considering certification as a project manager, hopefully knowing you statistically should be able to earn at least 16% more than if you were not certified should serve as great motivation to approach your department head and ask for funding.

If you are the head of a department or organisation and have little to no certified members working on projects, perhaps you need to start looking into setting up project management training opportunities now. If statistics show such a high percentage of high performing projects are led by certified project managers, it makes sense to provide your PM's with the opportunities to get themselves certified, and get them improving project performance on your behalf.

The statistics used are taken from Wrike - complete collections of project management statistics 2015. These statistics focus on American data, but are relative to the entire global industry and can be applied to trends in the UK.

The author has written and published articles on a wide range of topics including Small Business Advice, Tax and Accounting, Interior Design, House Renovation and Project Management.