APM (Fundamentals and Professional) or Prince 2 (Foundation and Practitioner)

[Wewewewe]

I work in benefits realisation - which is super niche but a growing role. It's between a business analyst and a project manager.

However i don't have the necessary qualifications for either a business analyst or project manager.

I want to get the PM qualifications as A. its an 8 day course rather than a new degree, B. is £3000 rather than £10K etc, C. project managers are better paid and not susceptible to a full takeover from AI.

However i'm not sure if i want to do Prince 2 or APM - I'm currently in a weird non central gov dept, but want to move into classic Civil service - if that makes any difference?

Which is better/more useful for today?

I think once i've got a basic qualification, i'll later look into lean/agile etc. unless this is needed over the traditional quals?

What do your managers have?

I would go for APM over Prince 2. It is much broader and used across more industries, l think for your role it will be more useful. However, it depends what is used in the civil service department you are wanting to join. I have PMQ and Prince 2 is not asked for in any of the industries l worked for, as it is not relevant. I specialise in business change/business transformation/ process improvements type projects.

There IS an APMG Benefits Management Practitioner qualification you might look at but it’s quite niche at the moment.

I have this qualification already, however i feel its pretty useless and realsitically even benefits management roles ask for a PM qual rather than this one! Thankfully i didnt pay for it, work did.

Prince2 - but my manager did this 15+ years ago so things have changed a little since then

from the jobs i've scouted - most seem to ask for 'Prince 2 practitioner or equiv (APM etc.)' so i feel like its pretty open.

APM seems wider - so i may go for that, it may just take a little longer to persuade work to pay (or save up for it aha)

Ha! Yes, I found the training deeply dull and certainly not the best APMG course I’ve ever done.

Would you consider MSP? It gives a slightly wider perspective than Prince 2. (I don’t have APM I should say.) I am quite wary though of Prince 2 given how many parts of the civil service are moving to Agile. There is a Prince 2 Agile qualification though you might consider?