Not all project managers are alike and not all have the same training needs. There are those who are new to the Project Management profession – perhaps practitioners who are working in projects and are looking at project management as their next career move – or established project managers who want to obtain a professional certification like the PMP®.

As an established project management training provider, Velopi has long realized that serving project managers at different stages of their careers means offering not only training, but support as well. This is the philosophy behind the company’s Blended Learning Solution, which has earned Velopi recognition as an Authorized Training Partner (ATP) of the Project Management Institute (PMI)® and as an Approved Training Provider by Quality & Qualifications Ireland (QQI). We take attendees from the application process right through to the certification exam! We do not just offer traditional classroom style Project Management training. We combine the classroom training with on-line learning systems and support.

For the project management novice, Velopi has a one-day “Introduction to Project Management” course. This introduces the student to the main project management concepts and integrates them together by using a practical, case-study approach.

If this course whets your appetite for more, Velopi can offer you professional project management certification. Without any background in project management practice, your choices are the QQI Level 6 project management course or the Project Management Institute’s Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM®) course.

It is on the CAPM® course that you will see Velopi’s Blended Learning Solution in action. Not only do our instructors cover the material that forms the basis for the CAPM® exam, they will assist you in applying for the exam and provide access to the Velopi exam simulator which will give you a practical taste for the actual exam itself. But this is not a hands-off approach. Any Velopi student can get support up to the exam itself. Your instructor is never more than an e-mail or a phone call away.

For experienced project managers, the Project Management Professional (PMP®) is becoming an important differentiator in the job market. However, you cannot apply for this exam unless you have proven experience in the profession. Just like in the CAPM® case, anyone preparing for the PMP® exam with Velopi will be guided through the application process and provided with spreadsheets to assist in calculating your experience. This is not as easy as it sounds, because hours of experience are calculated on the basis of process groups, rather than on projects and it can be quite tricky to get the totals to add up to the necessary thresholds.

Velopi recommends attending its PMI Authorized PMP® exam preparation class in order to cover the materials properly.

However, the demands of day-to-day project management are such that many people find themselves unable to sit the exam while the materials are fresh in their minds. The PMI® also regularly updates the underlying material for both CAPM® and PMP® certification (The Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge – PMBoK®) and the Exam Content Outline. To support students who may have been umable to sit the exam before any changes Velopi can offer a two-day PMP Refresher Course that highlight the differences as well as refreshing the unchanged materials, getting the student in the right mind set to sit the PMP® exam itself.

As with the CAPM® course, the PMP® exam preparation does not end when the course is over. The exam simulator is available to practice with as often as the student likes. E-mail and phone support are there if some topic does not make sense.

Another facility Velopi provides is detailed insight into what the Project Management Institute’s exams are like. As part of the class, the students will get a good feeling for what to expect on the day of the PMP exam.

Thanks to Velopi’s Blended Learning Solution, actually taking these exams will not come as a shock. The student will be familiar with the length of the CAPM® and PMP® exams in advance and they will not find the exam environment too intimidating. Having been training by Velopi’s experienced project managers (all PMP® accredited themselves) and exposed to similar questions to those in the exams themselves, Velopi’s students give themselves the best chance of gaining a world-recognized project management certification.

For more on our Blended Learning Solution, please click here and for more details of our course offerings, please visit our training page.