In the past few months I have been looking at project management courses and training. I'm going to be honest, there are a LOT of courses, programs and learning path options out there. Some are more detailed than others and there is a lot of free information out there. One of the biggest challenges I found was trying to work out what is the best course or learning path. Here's a short list of the options I found.
- Udemy | Has several courses on Project Management
- PMI (Project Management Institute | Has a lot of options and is probably the most well-known resource for certification
- TAFE SA | A higher Education school in South Australia that offers a Project Management Diploma
- Youtube and other free resources | A lot of free content available but does not have a lot of formalised structure for how to work through content in a way that builds on previous knowledge
this screenshot shows all of the different certification options that PMI offers.
After reading reviews and information about all of the above options, I decided to head to the ultimate learning platform, a place where you can learn just about anything you can think of for free.... Youtube! After filtering through a few videos I found this one Google Project Management Complete Course The thumbnail claimed that it was a course offered by Google.
I was interested and decided to watch the first few minutes of the video (it is 8 hours long in total). I was impressed to find that the course was in fact made and offered by Google.
I decided to do some more research and found the official page for the course at Grow.Google.com The page is loaded with all the info about the course.
I think that the course looks fantastic, it is officially provided by Coursera. I have summed up a few details below that really interested me in the course.
How much is the Google Project Management Certificate?
The certificate is offered through Coursera and is charged at $39USD per month (approx $50 AUD) there is also a 7 day trial. The pricing structure for the certificate is interesting and very unique, I have never worked on a training platform where you are charged per month for a single certificate / course. This means that there is no 'set' cost for the course, you just keep paying the monthly fee until you finish it. I suppose in some ways this incentivises people to complete the certificate quickly as they will pay less overall. With that said, I think there could be a cap on the amount charged 6 x the monthly charge would be fair. Some people may take a lot longer than others to complete the certificate but shouldn't necessarily be charged more just because they have taken longer to complete it.
What am I getting for the price?
The certificate is made up of five courses. They are;
- Foundations of Project Management
- Project Initiation: Starting a Successful Project
- Project Planning: Putting it All Together
- Project Execution: Running the Project
- Agile Project Management
- Capstone: Applying Project Management in the Real World
This is quite a diverse set of courses to makeup the certificate. I am especially interested in learning the different types of project management and am excited to work on a capstone project.
How long is it going to take me to finish
The certificate's website says that the certificate can be completed in less than 6 months if working 10 hours per week. I have read a number of reviews that suggest that the certificate work can be completed in 1 to 2 months if you apply a little more effort.
I think 3 months will be a fair guess as to how long it will take me to finish the certificate. This will be based on 2 - 3 hours per night working on the content.
My plan from here.
Enroll in the course on Coursera
I'm going to start the 7 day trial and then pay for the certificate. One option I am still considering is opting to go for Coursera Pro. This is an upgraded verion of Coursera where you get access to over 7,000 courses (including this one and others offered by Google) the cost for Coursera Pro in AUD is $78 per month.
Document the process
Through my social media accounts as well as my blog I plan to document course notes, ideas and real world issues I have faced that the course content may be relevant to.
I will commit to writing and documenting 3 times per week.
Show off the results
I will be using a custom domain projects.danp.com.au to add all of the things I create during this course. This will provide me with a reference point for the future, in case I need to go back and refresh my knowledge of any topics in the course.
