How Do I Get a Professional Certification From PMI?
As you grow more senior in your chosen profession, a professional certification will set you apart from your peers. Survey the major job-search websites for certification labels such as “PMP”,“CAPM”, or "PMI Certified" and see how many organizations are looking for certified project managers.
If your primary long-term goal is to pursue a professional certification with PMI, you should visit their website to get the current, specific requirements and fees for the certifications they offer (they change things a lot). If interested, you should probably join the certifying organization, and visit their local chapter meetings (The Austin PMI® Chapter’s website is http://www.pmiaustin.org/).
For their most sought after credential (PMP® - Project Management Professional), PMI® requires a minimum number of hours of recent project management education (which our intermediate and advanced courses qualify for), in addition to a minimum number of hours of professional experience (amount depends on your degree status). But for most experienced PM’s, the minimum hours of recent project management education is insufficient to pass their (difficult) exams (the pass rate is about 70% for 1st-time applicants to the PMP® certification, and those are people with lots of experience already!).
ACC’s set of project management courses are designed to give you several entry points, depending on your experience level now. Then they should be taken sequentially to help prepare you (eventually) for the (difficult) certification exams. Normally, if you started with little to no project management exposure or experience, there would be a significant time gap between each course, as you accumulate experience hours and prepare to submit your application to the certifying organization (a non-trivial process!).
See the ACC Project Management Program Overview for the starting points and expected experience gathering time between courses.