Training Options for Project Support Officers

If you’re currently working as a Project Support Officer or Project Co-ordinator, where do you go to increase your knowledge and skills to help you do the job better? When I think back to my early career – I worked as a Project Co-ordinator for a consulting firm and started with zero experience in projects.

In this article, we take a look at what training options are available right now for those that are working as a Project Support Officer today.

Essentials for PMO Administrators™

The Essentials for PMO Administrators™ course is a brand new certification by the House of PMO and APMG. This three-day course is the first in the PMO Essentials suite, and covers essential Project, Programme and Portfolio Management principles and terminology, the responsibilities, knowledge, skills and behaviour needed to be a successful PMO Administrator and the core and essential delivery support requirements in change control; financial management, information management, issue management, reporting (insights analysis) and risk management.

The course is aimed at those who are brand new to the PMO, working in project support roles such as or Project Administrators, Project Co-ordinator and Project Support Officers, and aspiring Project Managers with minimal project management knowledge looking to gain a foothold in their career.

If you’re just starting out and have less than a couple of years of experience this is the one for you to take a look at.

Reasons to consider this training option?

  • The course covers the essential knowledge and understanding to undertake the role of a PMO Administrator and other PMO support roles, as well as the essential responsibilities, competences, knowledge, skills and behaviours required to perform these roles.
  • You will be able to demonstrate a greater understanding of projects, programmes, portfolios and PMOs, as well as discover the services offered by a PMO, and how these can be delivered by those in support roles.
  • It’s a great step for continuing (or even starting!) your professional and personal development journey in working in a PMO.
  • It’s an accredited course and is certified by the APMG

Interested and want to look at the course modules? Take a look at the course overview – Essentials for PMO Administrators™

Head to the PMO Learning open course schedule to find out when the next course is running.

P3O® Foundation

The P3O® courses from AXELOS have been around since 2008 and are useful when you want to understand more about PMO – in all its forms – Project, Programme and Portfolio Offices.

The P3O® Foundation level course (3 days) is not quite for those brand new to the Project Support Officer role, aimed more at those who have a few years experience and more crucially need to understand more about – what people are calling “added value PMOs”. These, just briefly, are PMOs that help organisations deliver projects and programmes better – rather than the project supporting roles which for example are very much about working with a project manager on a single project.

The modules in the P3O® Foundation course reflect that difference – the principles of P3O®; why have PMOs; the different models and so on. The full breakdown is available here at the bottom of the page.

Reasons to consider this training option?

  • This certification is arguably the most well-known PMO related certification.
  • It will provide you with a wider and bigger picture of PMOs
  • If you’ve been working in PMO for a while now, it will open up new career possibilities – project PMO; programme PMO; portfolio PMO; centre of excellence PMO; enterprise PMO and so on!
  • It’s an accredited course and is certified by AXELOS (the same organisation that accredit PRINCE2® etc)

Head to the PMO Learning open course schedule to find out when the next course is running. We also have eLearning and Distance-Learning options available if you’d prefer to work at your own pace.

The PMO profession has choices – there is no longer just one option like it was back in my day. If you’re currently working in PMO as a Project Support Officer / Project Co-ordinator, finally you have choices about what professional development you can pursue based on where you are in your current PMO career and where you want to get to.

If you’re unsure about which choice to make, get in touch with us, we will be happy to chat and give you some pointers based on what you’re doing now and where you want to be.

The P3O® courses on this page are offered by PMO Learning. P3O® is a [registered] trade mark of AXELOS Limited. All rights reserved. P3O® is a registered trade mark of AXELOS Limited, used under permission of AXELOS Limited. The Swirl logo™ is a trade mark of AXELOS Limited, used under permission of AXELOS Limited. All rights reserved.

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House of PMO Essentials

Essentials for PMO Administrators

Essentials for PMO Analysts

Essentials for PMO Managers

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