Free Prince2 Training

Saturday, May 30th, 2009 - IT Jobs, career change, career management, career planning, career transition, construction jobs, cv help, economics, education, employment, project management, qualifications, recruitment, redundancy, unemployment

PrinceII Training

photo credit: 24seven Communications

With all the bad press around at present with regards the economy, and resultant unemployment, it did surprise but didn’t shock me when I read this week that 1 in 10 employers facing a skills shortage.

Why is this? One of the reasons is that school leavers are no more literate now than when Tony Blair and Labour came to power nearly 12 years ago. The second is the explosion in arts based degree courses, which has left the sciences particularly as well as engineering short of graduates. This is in part being increased by educational fees reflecting costs, and hence science and engineering degree costs are higher. The third reason is buried between the two: the lack of a coordinated plan between education and industry. No wonder why graduates are still under the impression that any degree will get employment!

The fourth, and which probably results in this initiative driven by local Regional Development Agency initiative, is the reluctance of employers to take on older employees. I don’t understand this, as I am seeing evidence of ageism now being applied on applicants as low as 35. Employers think they will cost more, and perhaps that is true – but they also come with experience, which reduces the commercial risk of using them.

Response to Redundancy

Under the title Response 2 Redundancy programme, you need to contact your local Regional Development Agency to see if they have a scheme running. It is in part EU funded and applied locally in a way which they define, which means the maximum grant of £500 is either a straight training grant of based on “match” funding (you pay half, they pay half or half plus the VAT.)

I had a Professional CV client this week who had taken advantage of this scheme, as he knew we placed IT Project Managers. On first review of his CV a month ago, I had commented that his CV would be better with the addition of a Prince2 qualification. We now have interviews lined up for him next week with employers who would not have taken a look at him before without his new Prince2 certificate!

I rang the Welsh version of the RDA, and it was confirmed such funding was locally available. Although based on match-funding, other available grants depending on your circumstances meant you could get the whole cost of a Prince2 for free.

I suggest you start at the APMG-UK Prince2 site who accredit all UK based Prince2 training providers, to find out costs and locations.

Lets assume you took the maximum funding of £500, and added £500 of your own money on the basis of match funding, then the course you could take would nominally be online training with the need to sit a physical exam to gain full Prince2 certification. I would suggest you supplement your online training with a 2/3 day exam booster to be able to read/apply the pink-book. This will possibly cost another £500, but better to pass first time than retaking with the possibility of not being able to be qualified ever.

One thought before you take action: the pink book will change in June-July 2009 by the APM, so if you plan to take the test after that be sure to ask if the course includes the new updates before commit to any course.

So there it is: Free Prince2 training. I suggest if you have experience, are presently out of work, and don’t have a Prince2 certificate, that you call your local Regional Development Agency and ask about Response 2 Redundancy funding. We will happily give you an estimate of your pay post gaining the certificate via our Free CV Review Service.

Good Luck!

Recommended Prince2 training providers:

• ICS
• ILX

If you need an interview winning solution, sign-up for our Professional CV service

Leave a Reply