How do I choose a PRINCE2® training course
How do I choose a PRINCE2 training course
How do I choose a PRINCE2 training course?
About this Guide
This guide is designed to help you find the right PRINCE2 training course.
Whether you are choosing for yourself or for your organisation, your choice will be a significant investment of time and money. It may well be that you will never make this decision again.
So it is important that you choose the best training for your own needs.
The PRINCE2 training market is crowded, complex and dynamic. Suppliers come and go, some with good credentials, others with a poorer history.
From time-to-time the PRINCE2 Examinations Board makes changes to the exam system. The owners of PRINCE2, the UK Government's Office of Government Commerce (OGC) updates the Method; the first edition of PRINCE2 was published in 1996, the most recent edition was in 2009.
So this Guide will follow these changes through future versions. Our aim is to give you accurate and current advice. So check the publication date of this Guide to make sure you have the latest version.
On the next page I explain what 'Accreditation' means in the PRINCE2 training world and why it is important to you.
On page 3 we then consider the choices you have on offer for accredited training.
You might not require exam-based training. If so, on page 5 I explain some of the benefits of non-accredited training.
In summary, I've created for you aChecklist on page 7 to use in deciding which course suits you and on page 8 share some useful links with you.
This Guide is offered to anyone interested in PRINCE2 training as free advice. It is not sanctioned or vetted by APM Group, OGC or TSO. Its contents are subject to the Creative Commons licence and it is free for anyone to share and reference.
pearcemayfield assumes no responsibility for any loss or injury caused by actions you may or may not take as a result of reading this guide.
Patrick Mayfield
Wantage, Oxfordshire 7th December 2010
Accreditation - What does that mean?
When people talk about 'Prince Training' they can mean one of a number of things. Usually they meanaccredited PRINCE2 Practitioner training. This normally takes the form of a four- to five-day course including two formal examinations.
Whether a PRINCE2 course and its supplier are accredited is likely to be important.
Why?
Most people want a formal qualification in PRINCE2; the training is merely a means to that end. By going through an accredited training course and taking certain public exams, you can gain the PRINCE2 Practitioner Certificate. This entitles you to describe yourself as a 'Registered PRINCE2 Practitioner'.
In certain parts of the project management job market PRINCE2 has become a valuable credential. However, it needs to be kept current; without taking a re-registration exam, the qualification lapses after five years.
So what does 'accredited' mean, exactly? The accrediting body for PRINCE2 training is the APM Group Limited (APMG). APMG accredit:
thetraining course, it's design, whether it fulfils the curriculum set for the examinations;
thetraining organisation, whether it has sufficient processes to handle the administration, maintenance and delivery of the training in a professional manner; and
thetrainer, whether they have 'real world' experience, have sufficient in-depth mastery of PRINCE2 to answer questions raised during a course and can adequately bring the subject to life in a classroom.
Once the course becomes 'accredited' it is permitted to use crown copyrighted material to do with PRINCE2.
Once the organisation is accredited if becomes anAccredited Training Organisation (ATO) and is allowed to use the PRINCE2 logo in its marketing material, and to run PRINCE2 exam centres as part of their course events. (See the section below.)
Once the trainer is accredited they become an 'Approved PRINCE2 Trainer'. An approved trainer (you've guessed it) can deliver an accredited course alone, as well as invigilate the formal PRINCE2 exams that may be part of that course. So often you don't need to book a different date for the exams; they become part of the course schedule.
Accredited Training Organisations (ATOs)
You can find the current list of ATO's atwww.apmg-international.com/APMGUK/AccreditedOrganisationSearch.
Don't be fooled bywww.prince2.com. It isnot an APM Group or OGC site; it is merely run by one ATO that insists - for obvious reasons - that it keeps the domain. (See page 8 below under 'Useful Links'.)
What about other organisations that are not ATO's but are advertising PRINCE2 training? They are likely to fall into one of three categories:
Affiliates. These, like Cardiff University and OpEyE Consulting in the Netherlands, are affiliated to an ATO and offer courses and PRINCE2 services through the ATO. These are known to APMG and are registered to operate as an affiliate.
Aggregators/Wholesalers. For example, Focus Training offer places on our public PRINCE2 training events in the UK alongside those of other ATOs. The advantage here is that you have greater choice of place and date for a public course, but the big disadvantage is that you may not know which ATO you are booking with.
'Grey market'. These are vendors selling PRINCE2 illegally. They are not accredited to use Crown Copyright material and they are unlikely to have any external assessment of quality. They cannot offer a formal exam as part of their course, and it is likely that they will refer you to a public exam centre - at separate purchase and additional risk. At the time of writing APMG is energetically pursuing these operators via legal channels. If you find a course advertised on e-Bay, for example, if could be dubious, unless it declares the name of the ATO or Affiliate that is selling and delivering the course.
So are all accredited courses the same?
Definitely not!!
APMG takes pains that its accreditation scheme leaves some latitude for the creativity of the course designers. Accreditation gives a minimum quality assurance. (See the 'Beyond accreditation' section below.)
Are all trainers the same? Yeah, sure. They're all zombies...
"APM Group's accreditation leaves some latitude for the creativity of course designers."Seriously, when I was the first Lead Assessor of PRINCE2 training for APM Group in the late1990's I found adequate trainers and great trainers. There were trainers that satisfied all the criteria laid down, but I wouldn't employ them in pearcemayfield; for me, they either lacked pizzazz and flair, were on some personal 'I know it all' ego trip, or they were just... well, boring. They didn't have ability to engage delegates, and to serve them with a learning experience that had inspirational sparkle.
I've talked at length to the current APMG assessors, and they aim to ensure through the assessment of trainers and materials, that delegates can expect a repeatable experience from a particular training organisation. This is a laudable aim. But it could be merely repeatably average.
So that you make the most of this investment in yourself you need to look a little deeper.
Beyond Accreditation - What to look for
If not all PRINCE2 courses are the same, how do you choose the best?
Materials
The materials they produce can give you a very good indication.
For example, the course book; is it in full colour or is it tones of grey? If the latter, that's good cost-saving by the training organisation, but it is unlikely to stimulate your learning and help your recall in the exam. There is now quite a body of research that shows that colour is important in both cognition and recall.
Also, what is the format of the course book? Is it merely printouts of PowerPoint slides? Again this is easy for the ATO to generate, but there are two problems for the learner with this:
Where is the added value to you of this written documentation beyond making sure the trainer covers all the material?
What works for you as a visual in the classroom discussion and what is effective as notes for reference some time afterwards are two very different things. They should correspond, but what is a suitable design for one, is not for the other.
Talking of which, are the slides all bullet points? This is not a very clever use of a visual medium in the classroom. Have you ever experienced 'Death by PowerPoint'? If so, you know what I am referring to here. Often training organisations give so much text on a slide that it amounts to mere re-presentation of the text in the PRINCE2 manual.
More than that, many training courses have a design driven by PowerPoint, and where the trainer uses each new slide primarily as anaide memoir of what they are to say next, like a sort of elaborate tele-prompter. PowerPoint is a useful tool but can produce a fairly boring visual design. Also, do you want to look at visuals that aidyourlearning or are ones produced for the convenience of the trainer?
You are paying for your course materials. Rather than gathering dust after the course,your course book could continue to be a useful reference for you.
"This is all very well," you may be thinking as you read this, "but how do I find out in advance what the material looks like?" Well, search for examples on their web site. Failing that, call them and ask for illustrative samples. The reaction you get may tell you a lot.
Design Method
Behind the materials, of course, is the method the training organisation uses to design its materials.
As we mentioned above, default use of PowerPoint, for example, is a method, but is like produce a pretty dreary learning experience.
Some training organisations now useActivity Based Learning orAccelerated Learning. Here the design changes from being focused on what the trainer needs to deliver the course, to what the learner needs. In this kind of design, sessions are designed around the exercises and games that stimulate learning. Emphasis moves away from lecture mode to practical engagement with the subject by the delegates and the learning that arises from that. This approach is more likely to give youboth your qualification (exam passes plus qualification)but also give you some confidence about putting PRINCE2 into practice afterwards.
Another aspect of your learning is that it is so much more than just the training event.
There is the pre-course work: setting correct expectations, pre- course study and exercises to prepare you to gain the most out of the event.
After the course you have to put learnings into practice for these to be consolidated into your experience and perhaps become a habit or standard practice for you. Is there any support from the training organisation to help you do this if you want it?
"APM Group's accreditation leaves some latitude for the creativity of course designers."Then there is the whole are of evaluation of your performance in projects. It may be that through no fault of your own, you are not getting the results you want from the training you have received. Where are the measures that might indicate you or your project sponsors need a different or supplementary kind of coaching? Does the training organisation provide that?
In the learning and development profession this is all called thelearning cycle. Your training course is only part of this cycle. Check to see whether the training organisation could support you through your whole learning cycle. All too many training companies, I regret to say, 'sheep dip' managers through their training courses, not caring what happens to them afterwards.
Referees
A great way of finding out about these more qualitative matters is to ask someone who has experienced being trained with this organisation before you.
Be careful about just accepting written testimonials on the training company's web site or brochure. They should have these to give you some confidence, but they are no substitute for asking to speak to someone who has been served by them before. You will find out far more anecdotally about the service you are likely to receive than by what the company presents to you in their advertising.
Non-accredited training
Of course,accredited PRINCE2 training may not be suitable for you or your organisation. In fact, there are some very positive benefits for considering a non-exam based course:
Your organisation does not formally use PRINCE2 but uses a derivative of it.
You need a workshop to engage your senior managers who are in governance over projects managed the PRINCE2 way.
You do not need to be trained in all the aspects of PRINCE2 but merely in its essentials.
You and your organisation have identified that you have a specific training need within a PRINCE2 framework.
You and your organisation want to use an internal project as a case study, so that you can take outputs from the training and immediately use them.
You may use a particular computer tool to support projects (e.g. Microsoft Project) and you want a training event that coaches you in both at the same time.
All these are excellent reasons for considering the non-accredited route. Taking the formal examinations out of the event does help you and the other delegates focus more on the practical aspects of topics, how you would apply them on real projects, but without the distraction of formal exams.
All that has been said previously about checking the quality of the training organisation still applies, though. The PRINCE2 and learning credentials of your supplier are just as important.
Checklist
Here is a checklist to help you choose the right course for you. It summarises most of the rest of this document.
Is the course run by a PRINCE2 Accredited Training Organisation?
How many years has the ATO been providing accredited PRINCE2 training?
Am I provided with pre-course material? If so, does the ATO tell me how much time I need to set aside to complete this work?
Are there modular solutions?
Does the price include the PRINCE2 manual and the Examination fees (Foundation and Practitioner)?
Is the ATO able to provide me with recent pass rates at Foundation and Practitioner levels?
Does the ATO have people involved in the development of the Method with OGC and APM Group?
Will the course come with additional documentation (course book)? If so, can the ATO provide me with a sample of its contents and format?
What design approach, if any, has the ATO used in designing its training?
Are the plenty of games and exercises throughout the course?
Does the ATO provide Activity-Based learning or Accelerated Learning?
Does the ATO provide PRINCE2 e-learning solutions?
Does the ATO provide non-accredited training in PRINCE2?
Does the ATO provide additional diagnostics/questionnaires as parts of senior management briefings in PRINCE2?
Can the ATO provide me with referees (people who have recently been on their training)?
Can the ATO provide me and my organisation with full support throughout my learning cycle?
Does the ATO also provide accredited training in MSP programme management, Change Management, and Management of Risk if I need it?
Does my course fee include lunch? (Some 'bargain basement' courses expect you to fend for yourself at lunchtime (!)- not a very productive use of your time on a training course, in my humble opinion.)
Do professionals within the ATO publish regularly - via articles, books or blogs - on wider issues around PRINCE2?
Some Useful Links (and one dodgy one)
Be careful about merely doing a Google search on "PRINCE2". The result you are immediately offered are unlikely to meet the checklist above. Instead consider the following.
www. ogc. gov.uk/methods_prince_2.asp - OGC's PRINCE2 site.
www. APMG-International.com - APM Group's home site. Depending upon which country to you access it from, you are likely to see your APMG Country Office page.
www. APMG-Exams.com - an APM Group site that allows you to buy and take online PRINCE2 and ITIL exams. Remember you can take classroom training or e-learning and then take the exam later, if you wish.
Warning:www. prince2.com is a domain owned by an independent training company. At the time of writing the banner heading declares it to be "the definitive PRINCE2 project management training resource". Really? If you go down several clicks it becomes obvious that the only training options being offered are from this organisation. This outfit has no more ownership of PRINCE2 than pearcemayfield or any other ATO. For reasons unknown to me, OGC have decided to not to take steps to take this domain name from them. At first glance, it certainly looks like the official PRINCE2 site. As it stands at the moment, I feel it is deceptive to you and other potential purchasers of PRINCE2 training.
However, in response, perhaps, OGC have created another site somewhat-amusingly called:www. prince-officialsite.com where you can access the complete list of PRINCE2 Accredited Training Organisations as well as other PRINCE2 resources, such as templates and case studies.
/www. usergroup.org.uk is the site for the Best Practice User Group (BPUG) which provides a user forum for the PRINCE2 user community. It is most useful to you once you have gained your PRINCE2 Practitioner qualification, but it nevertheless useful to consult, especially its own links page.
About the Author
I have tried to write this guide in what I hope is a personal, immediate and non-stuffy style. So you may want to know who I am and by what authority I can pronounce on these things. These are fair questions.
I am the Executive Chairman and founding director of pearcemayfield, a PRINCE2, MSP, P3O, Change Management and OBASHI Accredited Training Organisation (www.pearcemayfield.com ).
My original involvement with PRINCE was with the first private sector organisation that used it, BT Yellow Pages, now Yell.com. I joined Yellow Pages in 1990, shortly after PRINCE was published and I set up their Project Management Office to support project managers throughout Yellow Pages to use PRINCE well.
In 1992 the UK Government approached me asking if I would like to take part in a project to revise PRINCE, which became what we now know as PRINCE2. My role was to bring a community of practitioners together and regularly review what the authors were designing and writing. PRINCE2 was launched on 1st October 1996.
APM Group retained me during the late 90's as their lead assessor: I assessed training organisations that wanted to become ATOs, their material and their trainers.
In 1999 I left APM Group, seeking to build my own company and do PRINCE2 training better. pearcemayfield was launched in 2001.
Since then, I have been invited back by OGC to help refresh Managing Successful Programmes, which was published in September 2007. In 2009 my colleague, John Edmonds, similarly helped to the author the refresh of PRINCE2 that will become the 2009 edition.
I hope you have found what I have written in this guide helpful. If you have any comments or suggestions for improvement, I would be delighted to hear from you. My email address ispatrick.mayfield @pearcemayfield.com.
Good luck.
Patrick Mayfield
Change History
Version & Date
Reason for Change
0.1 1/4/08
First draft.
2.1 7/12/10
Second Edition.
2.5 13/12/10
Minor improvements & corrections after review.
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