35 Hours of Project Management Education – How and Where to Get the Required PMP Training?

The PMP® training required for Project Management Professional Certification candidates is also known as “35 Contact Hours of Project Management Education”. The term “contact hours” does NOT stipulate that the PMP® training must be obtained through fact-to-face classroom education. This is perhaps the biggest confusion PMP® candidates may have over the PMP® certification.

In fact, according to the survey of 100 PMP®s, the majority of them obtain their contact hours education certificate through online courses while only around 18% attends classroom training:

In short, online learning is much cheaper, offers more flexibility and opportunities to repeat the course lectures while face-to-face classroom training allows you to have a more focused preparation and direct interaction with the instructor. It all depends on which mode suits you most and your budget. You may read more about the benefits of each mode of PMP® training from the survey report.

Disclosure: By making purchases through the above affiliate link, you will help funding (at NO extra cost to you) the continual running of this website to continue providing quality PMP® exam information. Thank you!

Confused Terms: Contact Hours vs PDU

From time to time, you may see contact hours and PDU used interchangeably on some PMI® R.E.P. providers’ websites. In fact, “Contact Hours” refers to the project management education required for applying for PMP® Certification, i.e.the education before becoming a PMP® while “PDU” refers to Professional Development Units for certified project managers, i.e. the education after becoming a PMP®.

The confusion arises as a result of PMI® allowing the same course by R.E.P. to be used by both non-PMP® to obtain “Contact Hours” and PMP® to obtain “PDU”. For the time being, you should aim at “Contact Hours”.

The Next Step >>

Hopefully, you should have chosen your preferred mode of getting the project management education. Next, PMP® Certification exam preparation textbooks and study materials to help you get the credential easier will be introduced.