You want to advance your career in project management. What online courses should you take?

As a Program Manager looking to advance in project management, I found Skillshare to be a goldmine. It offers brilliant, bite-sized courses perfect for honing both hard and soft skills. Whether it's advanced Agile methodologies or enhancing team leadership, there's a plethora of options. The best part? I can learn in 5-minute bursts, fitting seamlessly into my busy schedule. It's been a game changer for both upskilling and keeping up with the latest industry trends.

When I was a project director, I used a number of MOOC sites to teach my team members new skills and provide them a solid grounding in project management fundamentals. With its many courses that combine theoretical study with real world application, EdX has proven to be an invaluable resource. A top notch educational experience is guaranteed by the platform's collaboration with prestigious colleges and institutions.

Before you start learning the basics, I suggest asking yourself, what is the goal with learning project management? Is it to get certified or learn/hone your skills? If certification is an eventual route you want to take, definitely PMP (there are others as well) is one way to go about it. To further your skills, check out the Google project management certificate learning program on Coursera. Very easy and intuitive way to learn the basics while getting a certificate.

You should first start with PMI and the PMBOK to understand the best practices that a variety of organizations will look to in order to understand what you know and don’t.

To advance your career in project management, consider taking online courses that cover both foundational principles and advanced topics in project management.Offered by various online platforms, these courses provide comprehensive coverage of the PMBOK (Project Management Body of Knowledge) Guide and prepare you for the PMP certification exam

Advance your project management skills by learning various tools and techniques. Master creating project schedules, budgets, risk assessments, and stakeholder maps using software like Microsoft Project, Excel, or Visio. Explore methodologies like agile, scrum, or waterfall for diverse projects. Online courses on LinkedIn Learning, Pluralsight, and Lynda can offer valuable insights into these tools and techniques.

My staff did benefit greatly from the bite-sized, purpose-built learning modules that LinkedIn Learning made available to them. The skills learned are more immediately applicable because to its incorporation with the professional networking platform, which also facilitates the transfer of knowledge from classroom to workplace.

Once you get a good grounding in the underlying expectations of a PM role, you’ll next find that much of the mechanics are now automated in various tools on the market. They all use PMIs standards as the basis for their tooling.

Once you get a good grounding in the underlying expectations of a PM role, you’ll next find that much of the mechanics are now automated in various tools on the market. They all use PMIs standards as the basis for their tooling.

In project management, various tools and techniques are used to plan, execute, monitor, and control projects effectively. Here are some common ones: Project Management Software: Tools like Microsoft Project, Asana, Trello, and Jira help with scheduling, task assignment, resource allocation, and collaboration among team members. WBS, Gant charts, CPM, Pert, EVM, Risk management tools, communication tools, quality tools, resource management tool, change management tool.

Udemy - Emotional Intelligence for Project Managers by Emotional intelligence is a crucial soft skill for project managers, it lays out the importance and practical applications in project management. How To Resolve Conflict - Chris Croft - great ideas and skills for project managers dealing with diverse teams and stakeholders PMI - also has an excellent bank of webinars on soft skills - very applicable.

While one can learn a lot from the platforms/online courses, these soft skills are best learned by putting learnings into practice. Take up a small project in your current team/organization, start contributing to it from the get go. Get comfortable being uncomfortable while building your skills. You will not get it right the first time but over time, you will see that your communication, ability to influence your stakeholders, manage schedules and strategic thinking to evolve. Pick any online platform, go through the fundamentals/course, understand the concepts and put them to practice!

To advance in project management, prioritize online courses enhancing emotional intelligence (EQ). Key areas include EQ fundamentals for self-awareness and empathy, leadership skills integrating EQ for team motivation, communication courses for effective team and stakeholder interaction, and conflict resolution to navigate project challenges with sensitivity. Also, consider stress management courses to maintain composure and clarity under pressure. Platforms like Coursera and LinkedIn Learning offer specialized courses. Developing EQ alongside technical skills makes you a holistic project manager, adept at leading diverse teams and managing complex projects successfully.

I'd say Coursera's platform for governments has been outstanding, and it stands out. It helped the team improve their skills by giving them access to several courses that cover a wide range of subjects, both within and outside of project management. With such a comprehensive and extensive course catalogue, the premium service's yearly subscription plan is really a bargain.

Unfortunately, all to often PMs focus solely on the control side of a project and forget that you can get to the end with full scope, under budget and on time, but deliver a solution that no longer works for your customer. The best way to manage expectations is to build relationships with your key stakeholders and do regular check-ins to ensure what is delivered meets their needs.

Embracing AI, specifically generative AI, is key for project managers aiming to stay ahead. PMI's "Generative AI Overview for Project Managers" course dives into using generative AI technologies for enhanced project outcomes. It covers predictive analytics, automation, and innovative solutions, preparing managers to apply AI strategically in projects. This course ensures professionals are well-versed in cutting-edge AI applications, enhancing efficiency and decision-making. By integrating PMI's generative AI insights, project managers not only boost their technical expertise but also align with evolving industry trends, positioning themselves as leaders in the dynamic field of project management.

The greatest re ent innovations are all around AI and what capabilities it has to enhance your day-to-day life. But without expertise in PM capabilities, the AI can also lead you astray by looking only at the data and not understanding the complexities inherent in projects.

Several trends and innovations are shaping the field of project management, enabling organizations to improve efficiency, agility, and outcomes. Some key trends and innovations include: Agile project management, Remote and distributed teams, AI, Data Analytics, Digital transformation, Blockchain, lean and six sigma , design thinking, hybrid project management, soft skills, pmo.

Explore insights from AI pioneers on YouTube and LinkedIn, focusing on prompt engineering and persona establishment for AI systems. These concepts are crucial for crafting effective AI interactions and strategies. By integrating these advanced AI skills with your project management expertise, you'll set yourself apart in an increasingly digital world 🌐🚀.

Coursera offers specializations and certificates that validate the team's abilities. It has become an integral part of our efforts to promote lifelong learning due to its adaptability, which allows students to study at their own speed and select courses that are designed to meet their individual requirements. By bringing together EdX, LinkedIn Learning, and Coursera's government platform, I established a robust learning ecosystem that equipped my staff with the expertise needed for effective project management. Given the incalculable benefits to one's career and personal development that one can reap from subscribing to Coursera's premium service, the resource is effectively free.

I believe the first step should always be mastering the fundamental skills of Project Management and then to move to more advanced techniques and methodologies and a later stage to seek certifications and validation. In my opinion a common mistake for a lot of people is that they jump straight into certifications and they don’t spend enough time in mastering the basics. Getting certified is always possible and straightforward but learning the basics is the real challenge here. There are many resources to do so, my advice is to read again some fundamental management books, then to move towards basics of planning, budgeting and people management then to chose an advanced methodology like Agile and master it. There