After a rigorous study for months, you earned one of the most reputable project management certifications: PMP. Is that it? No. You must earn 60 PDUs, professional development units, every three years to renew your PMP certification. PMP PDU Courses Online is the most convenient, affordable, and popular way to renew your PMP certification. In this post, we will go over the details of PMP PDU courses online and other alternative resources from that you can earn PDUs.
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.
Some project management professionals confuse the contact hours required to earn for sitting for the PMP exam and the PDU hours that help them renewing their PMP certification. If you also have questions about this, read our free PMP PDU post.
Before diving into the details of PMP PDU courses online, it is better to understand the PMP PDU requirements.
PMP PDU Requirements for PMP PDU Courses Online
All Project Management Institute PMI certifications require renewal. You can read the PMI PDU Guide for all details. To renew your PMI certification, you must earn PDU (Professional Development Unit) every three years. The following figure from the PMI website shows the PDU requirements of each PMI certification. As you can see, to renew PMP certification, you must earn 60 PDUs in each 3-year cycle.
PMI Talent Triangle demonstrates the ideal skill set of project management in three categories: Ways of Working, Business Acumen, and Power Skills. You can see the PMI Talent Triangle in the following figure.
(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”.)
When earning PMP PDU for your PMP certification renewal, you should be careful about the PMI’s PMP PDU requirements. There are two main sources to earn PDU. These are education and giving back. There are several resources for education and the giving back category. We have gone over these in detail in our PMP PDU requirements post. Besides, you can read our PMP PDU post to learn more about how to earn PDUs.
For PMP renewal, you must earn a minimum of 35 PDUs from the education category and a maximum of 25 PDUs from the giving back category. Note that, you can earn all 60 PDUs from the education category as long as you have 8 PDUs for each PMI Talent Triangle category.
There are additional rules for these categories as well. You must earn at least 8 PDUs from each category of the PMI talent triangle, which are Ways of Working, Business Acumen, and Power Skills. After you have secured at least 8 PDUs from each category of the PMI talent triangle, you can earn the remaining 11 education PDUs from any of the PMI talent triangles.
And for the giving back category, you can submit a maximum of 8 PDUs for the Work as Practitioner category. There is not any prerequisite for the other categories to the giving back category. As we expressed before, you might not submit giving back PDUs and complete all 60 PMP PDU needs from the education category.
How can I earn PDUs?
There are several ways to earn PDUs for education and giving back categories. We will be going over these sources of PDUs now.
The education category has the following sources for earning PDUs:
- Course or Training (PMP PDU Courses Online goes into this category)
- Organization Meetings
- Online or Digital Media – You can see online PDU options.
- Read
- Informal Learning
The Giving Back category has the following sources for earning PDUs:
- Work as a Project Manager or Practitioner (maximum 8 PDUs)
- Create Content
- Give a Presentation
- Share Knowledge
- Volunteer
Watch our “How can I renew PMP® certification?” video
Note that, the easiest and most affordable way to earn PDUs is by attending PMP PDU Courses Online. Let me tell you why. Almost 100% of the PMP certified professionals are full-time employees. Therefore, they are sparing their leisure time to complete their CCRS cycle and renew their PMP certification. If you consider organization meetings, reading materials, or informal learning sources, you must look for different materials, and different meetings to complete your 60 PDU need. However, if you find a good 60 PMP PDU Bundle, which will provide you PMP PDU Courses Online, you can complete the courses in the bundle at your own pace. You will not need to find different resources to complete your PDU needs.
PMP PDU Courses Online
If you attend and complete courses or training programs related to project management, PMI accepts these as PDUs. Following activities go under the category of course or training.
- Educational events held by a PMI chapter
- Face-to-face, instructor-led courses from PMI Seminars World
- e-Learning On-Demand courses –> PMP PDU Courses Online goes into this category.
- Academic education through programs accredited by the PMI Global Accreditation Center (GAC)
- Training courses offered by a PMI Registered Education Provider (R.E.P.)
- Courses from other third-party providers
PMP PDU Courses Online provides you the PDUs you will need to renew your PMP certification. As Master of Project Academy, we have also 4 different PMP PDU Courses Online.
Depending on the PDU bundle you will enroll in, you will have access to different online and self-paced courses. PMP PDU distribution of each course for the PMI Talent Triangle categories, Ways of Working, Business Acumen, and Power Skills, are as below respectively.
Watch our “How can I earn PDUs from PMP® PDU Courses?” video
Lean Six Sigma Green Belt Training – 12, 9, 9 = 30 PMP PDU
Agile Scrum Certification Training – 4, 4, 4 = 12 PMP PDU
ITIL Foundation 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 your earned PDUs as instructed in the PMI PDU Submission post.
As you can see, all you have to do is attend courses, complete them at your own pace and in any place, and then submit your earned PDUs to PMI. That is why it is the most convenient and affordable way to earn PDUs.
Other Sources of PMP PDU Under Education Category
Educational events held by a PMI chapter can be personal development activities, online PDU webinars, local speeches, etc. You can find a local PMI chapter and if you attend the events of the PMI chapter, you will be earning PDUs respectively. The disadvantage of this is, that you have to travel to the PMI chapter’s event location and you must adapt your schedule to the event’s schedule.
PMI Seminars World organizes courses around the world. These are face-to-face and instructor-led courses. If you attend these courses, you will earn PDUs. However, travel costs will be a disadvantage of this way as well. You have to reserve your seat days and maybe even months before. You might have to travel to a different country as well. If you miss the course, you won’t be able to attend and most probably, you won’t get a refund for the costs you already paid for the event as well.
Some universities or academic institutions offer project management programs or courses. If you attend these, you will earn PDUs. Actually, these are very similar to the PMP classroom courses. Generally, they take longer to complete, two or three months. Some of them are providing master’s degrees in project management. If you are interested in earning a diploma in project management, attending a project management training program accredited by the PMI Global Accreditation Center (GAC) is good for you. Because, while you are earning a degree, you will fulfill your PMP PDU needs as well. However, if you are just interested in earning PDUs to renew your PMP certification, PMP PDU courses online are much more comfortable and affordable than this option.
Some PMI Registered Education Providers organize classroom courses and trainings for earning PDUs. However, these courses are generally one or two-day activities and they do not suffice all 60 PDU needs. Therefore, you must have to attend two or three training courses. The cost of the training or course depends on the country and training organization however, PMP PDU courses online will cost you around 10-15% of the total cost you will pay for a classroom course. Besides, you will have the flexibility of attending lectures from your place and at your own pace anytime you wish.
Master of Project Academy offers a Free PDU Training bundle and earns you 4 PDUs for FREE. Enroll now!
The last PMP PDU source I will be listing here is courses or trainings offered by third-party providers. Actually, the method of delivery is almost the same as in the courses provided by REPs. The only risk of these courses is since the training providers are not REP or PMI authorized training partners, PMI might decline your PMP PDU submission. When attending a course or training provided by a third-party training organization, make sure their PDUs are PMI approved, in other words have been recognized before by PMI. Note that, PMI might ask for details about your PDU activity after your submission. In this case, the training provider must provide a letter of enrollment or certificate of completion showing that you have attended their PDU training or course.
Conclusion
We have gone through the PMP PDU requirements and how you can earn PDUs to renew your PMP PMI certification. There are lots of alternatives for earning 60 PDUs. However, considering the time flexibility and cost advantage the best way to earn PDUs is by attending PMP PDU Courses Online.
There are several pmp PDU online course providers and there is not a single the best pmp PDU online courses provider. You must check the content, price, and method of delivery (self-paced) of the PMP PDU courses online. If these are all ok for you, just make sure the earned PDUs will be recognized by PMI. You can ask for a student reference, submission approval proof, etc. If the PMP PDU online course provider can provide these to you, you can attend their PMP PDU courses online.