If you are planning to sit for the PMP certification exam or if you have a PMP certification already, you must be aware of what PDU is. Since you landed on this page, you should be looking for free PMP PDU resources. However, do you know that 80% of professionals who are related to PMP certification confuse about what PDU is? Therefore, before we express about free PMP PDUs or professional development units in this post, we will clarify a common misconception about PMP PDU.
If you already know what the PDU is, you can jump into the following headings
- I do not have PMP certification yet. I need sources for earning Free PDUs for PMP Certification Exam
- I passed the PMP exam and have a PMP certification already. I need PMP PDU for Renewing PMP Certification
However, we strongly recommend you to read the “What is PMP PDU?” heading as well.
What is PMP PDU?
PMP is the abbreviation of Project Management Professional. PMP certificate is awarded by PMI (Project Management Institute) to the professionals who pass the PMP certification exam. There are certain PMP requirements that every PMP candidate must satisfy in order to be able to sit for the PMP certificate exam.
One of the PMP certification requirements is attending to 35 contact hours of project management education. You can satisfy this requirement by attending PMP training. However, many PMP aspirants confuse the contact hours with PDUs. That is why many PMP aspirants search for 35 PDUs PMP training or Free PMP PDU training to satisfy the project management education requirements of PMP certificate.
PDU is the abbreviation of the professional development unit. PDU is a term related to PMP renewal. If you have a PMP certification already, you must earn 60 PMP PDUs every three years after you got the PMP certification in order to retain your PMP certification. There are several ways of getting PMP PDU. You can attend a training, webinar, online PMP PDU course, conference, read a book or author a book, etc. There are many other ways for earning PDUs for renewing PMP certificate.
You can earn PDUs online with our PM courses. You can check out the number of PDUs provided by Master of Project Academy’s courses on the PDU list matrix.
In short, if you are preparing for the PMP certification exam, PDU is not suitable for you. You must be looking for 35 contact hours of PMP education to satisfy PMP requirements.
What is included in our 35 contact hours of self-paced PMP Training?
Earning Free PDUs for PMP Certification Exam
Are you looking for free PMP PDUs to earn and sit for the PMP certification exam? We recommend you read the section above. Because you do not need PDUs. Instead, you need contact hours project management education to sit for the PMP exam.
In order to be able to sit for the PMP exam, you must have attended 35 contact hours of project management education. Many PMP aspirants confuse “contact hours” with “PDU” and they search for free PMP PDUs to satisfy PMP education requirements. If you do not have a PMP certification yet and if you are planning to sit for the PMP exam, you need to earn 35 contact hours. However, do not worry. We will help you to earn free contact hours to sit for the PMP exam as well.
Watch our “How can I earn Free PDUs?” video
Contact hours and PDU hours are different. PMI has clear guidelines of what they can accept as contact hours. The following screenshot has been taken from the PMP handbook, which is the guide of PMI for the PMP certification exam.
As you can see, PMI clearly states that they expect instructional hours in order to satisfy project management education. On the other hand, PMP PDU requirements for renewing PMP certification is different.
What Is The Difference between Free Contact Hours and Free PMP PDUs?
For instance, if you are reading a PMP book, PMI does not accept it as a source of 35 contact hours of project management education. However, if you have a PMP certification already and if you are trying to renew your certification, the hours you spent when reading a project management book will count as free PMP PDU. Contact hours must be instructional and taught by a project management expert or trainer. However, you can earn PDUs by studying yourself.
To be honest, it is tough to complete 35 contact hours of project management education with free resources. Even if you complete it, I am not sure whether they will be comprehensive enough to make you PMP exam ready. However, you can try to search. We have a free PMP PDU and free contact hours resource as well.
Attend our 100% Online & Self-Paced One-Hour Free PMP Training.
The free PMP training covers the steps of the online PMP application in detail.
Free PMP PDU for Renewing PMP certification
Do you have PMP certification already? Are you looking for free PMP PDU resources to earn 60 PDUs? Then, you are at the right place. You must earn 60 PMP PDUs every three years and there are certain conditions for these PDUs. You can read all details in our PMP PDU Requirements post.
There are two main PDU categories for earning Free PMP PDU.
Please note that PMI recently changed the PDU category names in the Education category. From now on the PDUs in the Technical Project Management category are replaced with “Ways of Working”; PDUs in the Strategic and Business Management category are replaced with “Business Acumen”; PDUs in the Leadership category are replaced with “Power Skills”.
- Education Free PMP PDU Category
- Giving Back Free PMP PDU Category
You must earn at least 35 PDUs from the education category and there must be at least eight PDUs from each category of the PMI talent triangle, Ways of Working, Business Acumen, and Power Skills. While there is a minimum 35 education PDUs requirement of PMI, there is no maximum limit. So, you can earn all of your 60 PDUs from the education PDUs category. The only thing is, you must satisfy the minimum eight PDUs from each category of the PMI talent triangle, Ways of Working, Business Acumen, and Power Skills.
You can earn four free PMP PDU from the education PDUs category if you follow the directions in our PMP PDU podcast episode post.
Master of Project Academy offers a Free PDU Course bundle and earns you 4 PDUs for FREE. Enroll now!
If you are a full-time working professional, it will not be easy to search for free PMP PDU resources and attend them. You will lose time, you have to attend them in person and it is not easy.
We recommend attending an online PMP PDU course like our 60 PMP PDU Bundle. You can complete the PMP PDU courses at your own pace and in any place.
PMP PDU distribution of each course in our 60 PMP PDU bundle is (for the PMI Talent Triangle categories, Ways of Working, Business Acumen, and Power Skills) as below respectively.
Lean Six Sigma Green Belt Training – 12, 9, 9 = 30 PMP PDU
Agile Scrum Certification Training – 4, 4, 4 = 12 PMP PDU
IT Service Management Certification Training – 5, 5, 4 = 14 PMP PDU
Microsoft Project Training – 1, 2, 1 = 4 PMP PDU
Once you completed the courses, you can claim PDUs as instructed in this link.
How Can You Earn Free PMP PDUs from the Giving Back Category?
You can earn free PMP PDU from the giving back category if you are an active performer in the project management profession. For instance, if you are working as a project manager already or if your job is related to project management, you can submit up to eight free PMP PDUs from the giving back category.
The maximum number of free PMP PDUs you can submit from the giving back category is 25 PDUs. While there is a maximum limit for the “work as practitioner” category, there is no maximum limit for other categories of giving back category. However, in any case, you cannot exceed the 25 maximum PDU limit from the giving back category.
You can earn free PMP PDU in four alternative ways under the giving back category.
a-) Create Content and Earn Free PMP PDU
If you contribute to the project management world by writing an article, book, or creating blog posts, you will earn free PMP PDUs as well. Because you enhance the project management knowledge, PMI recognizes it as a source of PMP PDU.
b-) Give a Presentation and Earn Free PMP PDUs
You can give a presentation in PMI chapters, in a professional seminar or conference, or even you can give a presentation to your colleagues at your work about project management. These will help you to earn free PMP PDUs as well.
c-) Share Knowledge and Earn Free PDU
If you share your project management knowledge and experience with others, sharing your knowledge will help you to earn free PDU. For instance, you can mentor junior project management professionals, you can teach your colleagues in your organization or you can act as a subject matter expert on a specific topic. These will count under the share knowledge category of giving back category.
d-) Volunteer and Earn Free PDUs
PMI has several volunteering activities. If you volunteer in these project management-related chapters, activities, etc., you will earn free PDUs since you will contribute to extending the project management knowledge.
Conclusion About Free PDU
If you are searching for a Free PDU, there are two options
1- Either you are willing to sit for the PMP exam and trying to earn free PDUs to satisfy the project management education requirement of the PMP exam
2- Or, you already have a PMP certification and trying to earn free PDU to renew your PMP certification.
For the first case, although you are searching for free PMP PDU, you actually need contact hours of project management education. Because PMP requirements state that you must have attended to 35 contact hours of project management education before you sit for the PMP exam. However, since this is a common misconception, even if you search for free PMP PDUs for project management education, you will find relevant resources.
For the second case, the PDU term is used appropriately and you are searching for free PMP PDU options to earn 60 PDUs and renew your PMP certification. There are mainly educational PDU options and giving back category options for this. You can earn all 60 PDUs you need to retain PMP certification from the education PDUs category since it has no maximum limit. You can look for the giving back free PDU option as well and complete your CCR cycle.