PRINCE2 required for promotion

I did PRINCE2 practitioner on a 5 day course. It really, really isn't worth just doing foundation, do the extra couple of days.
I had never, ever done project management before so had to do a fair bit of work in the evenings. Passed both exams first time.
 
Westyfield2 said:
PRINCE foundation is easy. But... :confused:
Actually that probably is all that's needed given how government projects **** up! :p

I'd be a bit concerned about my employer not paying for training of employees. Do you not have a training budget or personal development plan or anything?
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They will pay for the cost of the exam and reward me for passing it. I think under normal circumstances they would pay for the training but it has to be relevant to the role I'm doing. I was starting to look into PRINCE2 off my own back but now they want me to pass the exam to get a promotion. I will speak to them Monday.

zegna said:
It's really not hard to get a Prince2 foundation certificate. It takes a 2-3 days max!

Compare this to a proper qualification (MSc, MBA etc).. I Don't understand why these things are worth anything..

It's just a hoop to jump through.. If you fail, you're actually retarded.
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No pressure then eh!? ;) One question though. The pass mark is only 50%. Is this because it's supposed to generally be easy or because the questions are hard so you only need 50%?

Conanius said:
I did PRINCE2 practitioner on a 5 day course. It really, really isn't worth just doing foundation, do the extra couple of days.
I had never, ever done project management before so had to do a fair bit of work in the evenings. Passed both exams first time.
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I will do the practitioners exam, hopefully take a proper course when I'm done with this software release. The immediate focus however is on the foundation as it's standing between me and a promotion.


Cheers for the other input though guys, general opinion seems to be that it is easy which is good! Just noticed that I will have to travel to London to take the exam :(
 
I did PRINCE2 practitioner when, I like to say, it was hard: 2005 - 3 hour written exam. I did MSP (Managing Successful Programs) about 4 years ago when OGC had switched everything to multiple choice. exam was 1 hour and multiple choice. You have to know the subject; but, really it was a piece of ****.

My PRINCE2 run out 5 years ago (why the hell!!!) and so I cannot put it on my CV anymore even though what I feel I took was much harder than what you have to do nowadays.

I think it is a joke how easy it is now. They did the multiple choice for 2 reasons imo:
1) so they do not have to pay people to sit and mark a written exam
2) to make it easier and so more people pass

I do not know why soooo many PM jobs still ask for this. Surely my Degree and Postgrad which I spent over 4.5 years working on would be a better indicator of my ability to learn, analyze and apply myself?
I do not know why it runs out after 5 years. The base ideas do not change.

It is a money spinning exercise which frankly I find insulting that my company wants me to waste my time on. But hell; if they are paying for it.......
 
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RaMDOM said:
I did PRINCE2 practitioner when, I like to say, it was hard: 2005 - 3 hour written exam. I did MSP (Managing Successful Programs) about 4 years ago when OGC had switched everything to multiple choice. exam was 1 hour and multiple choice. You have to know the subject; but, really it was a piece of ****.

My PRINCE2 run out 5 years ago (why the hell!!!) and so I cannot put it on my CV anymore even though what I feel I took was much harder than what you have to do nowadays.

I think it is a joke how easy it is now. They did the multiple choice for 2 reasons imo:
1) so they do not have to pay people to sit and mark a written exam
2) to make it easier and so more people pass

I do not know why soooo many PM jobs still ask for this. Surely my Degree and Postgrad which I spent over 4.5 years working on would be a better indicator of my ability to learn, analyze and apply myself?
I do not know why it runs out after 5 years. The base ideas do not change.

It is a money spinning exercise which frankly I find insulting that my company wants me to waste my time on. But hell; if they are paying for it.......
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Is this true of the foundation? I know there is an expiry on the practitioner, but was unaware of one on the foundation.
 
Having done it before I wouldn't do it online unless you are very disciplined with self study and I'd also verify that the online exam is legit - PRINCE2 are paranoid about people cheating.

I did it at a training center (QA) and it was rather dull but easy enough if you pay attention to HOW THEY want you to answer the questions. It's a money making exercise though hence it expiring even if you use it as part of your job.
 
As others have mentioned I am very surprised that your employer expects you to front up the course costs.
 
Prince2 foundation exam is extremely easy. Though I failed the Practioner part by 2 marks which is a bit harder.

We had schooling for 5 days at work, 2 days, then you take the F exam of the 3rd morning, then 2 days on the P exam and the exam on the final afternoon.

It without doubt is one of the most boring qualifications I have ever undertaken and you will forget anything you learn about a week later.
 
I did the APM equivalent foundation course over two days. Exam was easy and what we learnt was utterly pointless and I've never used any of this knowledge since.

The 5 day course I have heard is much harder. Whether it is actually useful or not remains to be seen.
 
I've adapated some of what I learnt in my day to day, but following it in a rigid fashion wouldn't work, too much fluidity at my work, ha!
 
book a short course and get it over and done with, an old colleague of mine did it and passed, he was without a doubt the biggest dumb ass I have ever met, his job/career path didn't even need it - he just saw the words project management and got it into his head that this would apply to everything.

congrats on the promo btw
 
physichull said:
I did the APM equivalent foundation course over two days. Exam was easy and what we learnt was utterly pointless and I've never used any of this knowledge since.

The 5 day course I have heard is much harder. Whether it is actually useful or not remains to be seen.
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Well its mostly going to be useful if your company uses the methodology otherwise its more just a box ticking exercise for whoever is responsible for the training budget and a buzz word for you to whack on your CV.
 
I did the Prince 2 Foundation - its basically a turn up and collect your certificate level course. Just book up somewhere - pays your money and collect certificate after answering a common sense questionnaire with a few keywords you might have heard in the course blurb
 
Is Prince2 Foundation the open book one or the multiple choice one?

Either way I've seen barely trained chimps with no more than 3.2 braincells pass it after a 2 day course. Get on a course, get it done, expense the cost, stick it on your CV and enjoy the completely arbitrary boost in pay that has nothing to do with actually knowing anything about it.

The public sector love it. I've seen an ex trainer with no understanding of projects be given a PM role over a chap who had spent a decade running IT projects, simply because the former had the word "Prince2" on their CV.
 
It's fairly simple however my recommendation would be to go the whole hog and do Practitioner rather than just Foundation, preferably via a tutor led course. Cost about a grand I think so even if you have to front half the cost yourself, money well spent especially if your employer will give you time off work for it. The Practitioner exam is arguably easier as it is open book.

Don't worry about looking at the material and it being unfamiliar - the objective with these type of courses is simply to learn the textbook approach to answers rather than worrying about the real world or your past experiences. If you are good at short-term learning then any of these IT short course should be a doddle.

I would echo the views in this thread questioning why it is held is reasonably high regard, as even GCSEs are harder and more useful (albeit less focused on a specific discipline). I've studied a Project Management unit at postgraduate level and it was much more diverse, useful, interesting and challenging than PRINCE2.

That said, I suppose for organisations looking to run projects in a very specific way (typically public sector) I can see the appeal and just because something is easier doesn't necessarily mean it is less applicable.
 
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