Talk to me about project management courses (l work in healthcare)

[EL8888]

I’m wanting to further develop my career and lm tinning of doing a project management qualification. The big question is which one? I work in healthcare and do a fair amount of project management in my current role. I have heard of Prince2 and Agile, my understanding is Prince2 is traditionally asked for in healthcare but Agile is more modern. Is this correct and which should l do?

If you want to continue in the public sector like health care then prince makes more sense.
Agile is great, much less paperwork in involved, but prince is often preferred in sectors such as yours because its admin heavy, which means there is greater traceability and accountability (in theory).

Whether the NHS would in fact be better off with a different approach is another matter

@TaraR2020 yep l thought the perspective might be that. I am too aware the NHS (and similar) Iove their paperwork and processes!

But yes a different approach, lm pretty sure would be a lot better!

Who did you do your qualification through?

Honestly, I can't remember now, it was ages ago and sponsored by work so would have been whoever they typically used!

Take a look at APM, I think they accredit certain bodies if I remember rightly.

You could always take a prince2 certificate to get yourself started and then do an agile one later on. Last time I looked, I think you could do agile for prince courses too. That's probably what I'd recommend so that you're able to work well in both approaches while appealing to those companies who prefer prince. Of course you could do it the other way around too!

@TaraR2020 weirdly enough l was thinking of doing Prince2 and then Agile. Prince2 for the CV and Agile to get a practical approach. Thanks for your advice and insights

To be a good project manager you need to do both. You should understand what the options are to determine what approach to take that suits what exactly you are trying to deliver.

But you're in healthcare, so do Prince2 first.

By the way, there are also multiple types of agile working, so try to get a course that gives an overview of all of them. Or at least Scrum, Kanban, Extreme programming and Dynamic systems development.

There is also APM (APMP) and PMP (PMI); those should open any doors that Prince2 or Agile do because they are more advanced qualifications. If you take the Agile route then you should aim to get a Scrum Master qualification regardless of your Agile methodology preference, there is a shortage so it's well paid and nobody will mind if the team follows Kanban instead.

@MRex great, thanks for all of this useful information. It sounds like lm on the right track

@TaraR2020

If you want to continue in the public sector like health care then prince makes more sense. Agile is great, much less paperwork in involved, but prince is often preferred in sectors such as yours because its admin heavy, which means there is greater traceability and accountability (in theory).

Whether the NHS would in fact be better off with a different approach is another matter

This.

Although I work in a bank, which is also traceability heavy (or should be) and we have gone down the Agile route. I bloody hate the 3x weekly scrums.
I have a few project colleagues who have been made redundant recently. Most vacancies are asking for Agile experience.