To not pay for this training course for my DH?

[ChilledTomotoes]

My DH has been unemployed for nearly 4 years now due to health reasons (severe anxiety). He is now much better and has been looking for work.

He used to have a professional job in the NHS and earned a good salary. He’s adamant that he wants to get into project management and wants to do Prince2 training. He has no experience of project management really.

If he does the Prince2 he would still need to apply for trainee roles as he has no experience. But he thinks the qualification will help him get a job. Would it really though?

It would cost approx £500 and although I have the money, we have very minimal savings. I’m scared to lose this money on something which will have no real benefit.

On the other hand would it show he was really serious to employers?

AIBU - yes you should give him the money
UANBU - no he should get an entry level job first

I did Prince many many years ago and am no longer registered as it expires after 5 years if you don’t re-test.

I can still put it on my CV and it does help the tick box in getting your foot in the door but as other people have said experience of delivery is the main thing people are looking for

There’s a lot of competition for PM roles due to the large number of contractors who have recently been let go. I’m glad I’m not looking for a role at the moment. I don’t see how many trainee roles would be on offer

I'd compromise and say that once he has been in work for six months then as a family you can sit down and re-consider the course.

Where I used to work everyone did Prince2 for a week out of the office. Eventually so many people had it, it became worthless.

Don’t know if this is still the case but his new employer may sponsor him to do it. I’d concentrate on getting a job first.

Surely in the world of MN all money in a marriage is 'joint'. Certainly if a man has money it's the accepted wisdom that the woman is entitled to half of it, why not the same in reverse?

I’ll try to answer some questions...

His job in the NHS was clinical. It was very stressful and made him ill so we don’t want him going back to that (he has considered it).

I don’t spend anything on myself. My wage supports all of us including 2 DC. We haven’t been on holiday for years. These savings are from my yearly bonus, its likely that I won’t get one next year due to COVID, and we got a lump sum for child tax credits as they underpaid us.

We’ve looked for funding and there doesn’t seem to be anything available in our circumstances.

We’ve paid £100 a week for his therapy sessions. We spent all our savings on that and then had to ask family for help as well. He’s had thousands spent on him. We are finally in an OKish position after a long time (he doesn’t have therapy anymore).

I know there’s no guarantee. I think it would make him more confident and he does seem passionate about it. He’s been talking about it for months and I’ve been waiting to see how serious he actually is.

It’s really hard as if it still doesn’t work out for him it might set him back even more

I’ve done PRINCE2 it is a lot to learn, pretty intense. It is more aimed at teaching a methodology to people who already are PMs and as such would be a shit introduction to PMing.

He’ll find it near impossible as he won’t have any experience to relate the learning to. On top of which, in my experience PRINCE2 is falling out of favour in some organisations anyway.

Not to piss on his chips,but project management isn’t really the best career choice for someone recovering from anxiety. I’d say it’s pretty much guaranteed that you will get very high levels of stress. And very little respite.

I thought the move might be from clinical to non-clinical. Based on your update, don't pay to do the course now. Apply for project officer and project co-ordinator roles which are a)less stressful and b) a chance to really experience project management type roles and see if it they're for him.

Prince2 is preferred in a lot of the NHS, so he's identified the right course. But it will be vastly easier to understand, and more useful, once he's spent some time working within a project team.

Has he had a look at the free business courses within the OU website? I think I recall there were introductory project management ones listed, which would be an indication of his interest and commitment on his CV (ex-NHS HR here )

I can assure you as an employer in these times of Covid there are hundreds of thousands of experienced qualified people looking for work. Absolutely no way would I hire someone with training but no experience. No way.

It takes years to get good at something. Unless I'm paying peanuts (which I don't like doing) why would I want someone who is going to be if little use for at least 6 months putting extra workload on other staff and making mistakes they will have to clear up?

So no. He's doing that typical man thing of wanting the career shortcut. The big job without the hard work. He won't get hired and it will impact his cofidence. Unless he's prepared to go in with some humility, at a junior level, and listen to women, and men younger than him he will get nowhere. Unless he's an exceptional blagged and has a mate that can get him a job - which I doubt.

A big leap I accept, but to me this is 🚩 🚩🚩🚩

Just unemployed cause he has anxiety? Too anxious to do all the housework I'm guessing? No.
You paying for expensive training will drain you wallet and give nothing. These men who expect women to pay for training ususlly don't end well.

He needs to have a job while he's doing it. A qualification in project management is useless unless you have experience of applying it.

I'm not sure if project management is the job for someone with anxiety either. I think he would be better off starting with a part-time job so he can have time to support his mental health.

I have anxiety and a project management qualification I don't use.

I work in PM, does he know what area he wants to go into?
NHS are recruiting loads of these roles currently but he may not have enough experience for them, it is a fiercely competitive market at the moment.
As others have suggested would he consider a more junior role to start? He's been out of the work place for a long time and these roles can be extremely demanding and stressful. Obviously the money will be lower but if you're living on your wage only everything helps.

If he has clinical experience I would recommend he looks at the APM PFQ course as opposed to prince. APM courses give a much broader overview of PM, and at the PFQ level he would not need any previous experience. When he’s got a good amount of PM experience he could look at the PMQ, PPQ and chartered.

If he wants this he needs to do dog walking, child minding (plenty of demand) and anything he can to pay for it. £100 therapy a week? That's expensive therapy. No holidays for you? God. He needs to be giving back now not trying to take more.

Oh and every single cv I see has the word passionate on it. Every fucking one. If he really was passionate instead of spending YOUR money on a course he would be sending his cv out and phoning and offering to work for free to get work experience.

Project management is stressful. Lots of interpersonal negotiation.

What transferable skills has he got? Had he cracked a book on Prince 2? It would be interesting to see if his thinking changed.

The job market is flooded with contractors as businesses everywhere are trimming their planned development programs to the bone.

It’s not a good time for anyone job wise but project management is definitely a rough ride.

God no. If he's stressed and anxious I'm not sure that project management would be for him anyway. Why can't he get a minimum wage job to pay for the course?

Oh and that aside I agree re PM. You need a rock solid disposition and it is indeed stressful. There's no room for fuckups either so he's a liability if hired in anything other than a very junior role. Guessing he liked the word 'management' in the title. Perhaps someone should explain that it actually means 'responsible for making sure everything goes the right way' not just 'telling everyone else what to do'.

I am a project manager (IT) and have PRINCE2. I did it some years ago because at the time everyone seemed to want it.

Since then I've never been asked about it, or asked to show my certificate, although it is often listed as 'essential' on job adverts.

You don't say what your partner's existing experience is, but its rare to go into project management without having worked on projects in the area you're managing. And if you do, you'll be an administrator / coordinator reporting in to someone else who is actually managing it.

That said, its a useful general skill. I would say Prince2 was over the top though, and suggest something cheaper such as a class on Coursera.org or Futurelearn.com

I'd suggest your partner should think about the specific roles he's keen on, and then try to talk to someone already doing that type of work to understand the path they've taken. If it happens that they're interested in IT project maangement, feel free to contact me directly.

If he gets a Project Coordinator role a lot of companies will pay for him to sit the Prince2. Definitely don't pay for it yourself, at least until he's got some experience to see whether he enjoys it.

Is data science of any interest to him? It’s a growing area and there are health specific roles.

He needs a job , any job , to show he's willing and able to work , choose if you can something easier on his mental health, if he's working he's much more likely to get a better job than someone out of work , I really don't think the way forwards is more training
I project manage as my own boss in construction , I can assure you at times it can be stressful

Entry level jobs in any field are hard to come by at the moment! Many over qualified people. So I think you should support him to do this course as it will make him more attractive as a candidate.

It doesn’t sound affordable to me, OP.

I'm a PM and have Prince2. I started out in an entry role 15 years ago and trained as I went. These days though, I wouldn't bother with P2 off the bat.

I'd suggest he get into an organisation and see what methodology they're using. Very few places use pure P2 or pure Agile, and which they lean towards depends on the industry. More and more places are hybriding the bits that work for them with aspects of lean and change methodology. If I was recruiting, I'd be less interested in things like P2 and Agile and more interested in how they've worked real life projects, using different methodologies.

Your DH really needs to start getting experience then decide which methodology will be the most useful for where he wants to take his career, before committing to a course.

Why can't he work whilst he does it?

I know loads of people who got Prince2, or the Agile one, and all of them did it whilst working full-time.

I don't think it will help him much without some professional experience to go alongside it. He really needs to take a relevant job and just get stuck in. Unless he was going something very similar to Project Management in his last job, I doubt he will get a PM job straight away.

If he was clinical in the NHS tell him to look at quality roles in that field - look at PCNs as well as Trusts. Current shortages in the NHS around infection prevention and control, emergency planning and resilience, clinical systems IT, and therapies (especially OT, audiology and orthotics). Was he in a community role? Far less stressful than acutes.

He needs to get a job first in something he has qualifications/experience in, then do the course, preferably alongside a related work task.

I worked in local government and was employed on a temporary contract specifically to set up a specific project under the supervision of a qualified person. I was doing the leg work. It was a great learning experience.