I am looking at a PM certificate and considering two schools. One is a local school that offers an undergrad certificate, 18 credits, total cost of about $2,200 (minus books). The other is a university, graduate level, 12 credits, total cost of $6K (minus books), and it can roll into a masters program. My employer pays about $3K a year in T/A and, honestly, I want something kind of "easy". I have quite a bit of PM experience and have my Project+. Local school - Project Management Certificate University option - Online Graduate Certificate and Project Management Classes Pros and cons of each? I am not sure if I would want to teach PM or if there is even a big need for it. Thoughts and suggestions?
As someone who is in the midst of creating an entire PM program I can share my experiences for what they are worth. If you are looking to teach PM, you are probably better off looking into PMP certification. With a large number of universities offering PM classes within a school of business, your PhD in business gets you on the right path. However, to teach a PM course recognized by PMI, there needs to be a PMI certification. There are a lot of resources explaining everything on the PMI website if you want to look it over... On a side note, there is a very large demand for PM teaching in my area, at both the undergrad and graduate levels...
As I often say, you get and give forms of capital in higher learning. You give effort (learning) and money; the school gives an education and a degree (or other form of recognition). If you're only (or largely) interested in the recognition and not so much in the learning, get a PMP (if you don't have one already). It will likely carry more weight than a certificate, even though the path for experienced project managers is somewhat easier.
I currently teach PM at the corporate level, I am also a consultant. Currently I have a PMP and CSM (Scrum Alliance) and by this time next year I will have completed the SAPM (Stanford) and the PMI-ACP (agile certified). PM is also my specialization in the MS program I am working on at Bellevue. I gave you all of that to say, I've been where you're at now. My advice, without the PMP the rest of it is icing with no cake. The PMP is/should be the foundational credential and as a bonus, it's WAY cheaper than school. Afterward you can expand into graduate certificate programs or seek specialized certifications etc. If you do not qualify for the PMP, do the CAPM. A CAPM certified project specialist may not lead multimillion dollar projects but they are very likely to be assigned to a large project team working closely with a project or program manager (which educationally beats the snot out of any school). My $.02
Thanks for the advice everyone! I have quite a bit of PM experience and have lead projects ranging from a few weeks and $10K to a year long and $500,000. I managed projects for service contract customers with a revenue value of $450M (the project did not cost that but the customer sat that drove that money was at stake). I started to study for my PMP just before the summer but they changed the test in late July. I am still working to submit my portfolio for my Lean Bronze and maybe will get back on the PMP when I am done with the Lean portfolio. So - ditch the certificate for now and focus on the PMP seems to be the thought...right?