Introduction
In this video Madeleine Parsley describes why she chose to take a PRINCE2 Foundation and Practitioner course with Knowledge Train, and how she has benefited from gaining her PRINCE2 certification.
Madeleine explains that she wanted to gain technical insights about project management to improve her ability to manage projects at work.
After completing the course, Madeleine feels more confident running programs and can work more independently, thanks to the PRINCE2 Foundation and Practitioner qualifications.
Madeleine preferred taking the PRINCE2 Foundation and PRINCE2 Practitioner courses consecutively, as it was more convenient for her.
Watch the short video below, or download the podcast to listen on your device.
About PRINCE2
PRINCE2 is the world’s most widely used project management certification applicable to any project, of any size in any industry. PRINCE2 certification can provide several benefits to students and is available at Foundation and Practitioner levels.
Foundation is an entry-level certification appropriate for individuals who provide support to project managers or have responsibilities related to project management but are not accountable for the project outcome.
Practitioner is the highest PRINCE2 certification. It is suitable for professionals who manage projects, such as change managers, project support staff, product managers, or business analysts.
Knowledge Train offers PRINCE2 training in both virtual classrooms and self-paced online formats.
On an instructor led PRINCE2 course, you will receive high-quality training from an experienced PRINCE2 trainer.
Interactive self-paced online courses have been designed to maximise the effectiveness of the learning experience. All courses are designed using instructional design best practices to make the learning experience enjoyable and prevent students from being overwhelmed by too much information.
Transcript
Here’s the full transcript of the video.
00:00:08 Sevcan Yasa: So, thank you so much for joining us today. Can we start by taking your name, your job role, and the company you work for please?
00:00:15 Madeleine Parsley: Yeah, my name is Madeleine Parsley. I’m a senior research portfolio manager and I work at UK Research Innovation.
00:00:23 Sevcan Yasa: Can you tell us a bit about your role, please.
00:00:27 Madeleine Parsley: So I look after all of our research investments into productivity.
Why did you take the PRINCE2 course?
00:00:42 Madeleine Parsley: I decided to take a PRINCE2 course because I found that I needed more technical insight into how to manage the programme of work that I oversee.
00:00:59 Sevcan Yasa: Did you used to do PRINCE2 or project management prior to taking the course?
00:01:05 Madeleine Parsley: Yeah, so I’ve done the APM project managers qualification uhm prior in a previous in a previous job role, but I felt which gave me a good background, but my organisation specifically needed PRINCE2 methodologies. So, while I was able to adapt the APM methods, I needed specific things that are unique to PRINCE2.
How did PRINCE2 qualification help you?
00:01:39 Madeleine Parsley: Made me feel a lot more confident with running the programme. It has allowed me to work more independently and I have like the confidence that I know what I’m doing and I’ve got the, obviously all the learning materials and worksheets and stuff to look back on if I need to check things, but I’m also able to anticipate future work based on the topics in PRINCE2.
What are the challenges in your role?
00:02:22 Sevcan Yasa: In terms of PRINCE2, and generally in your role, what do you think are the challenges?
00:02:30 Madeleine Parsley: I suppose the challenges with, well, one of the principles of PRINCE2 is that you’re able to tailor it, so I think that the challenge in my role is understanding which bits I should tailor uhm, and also, when you work in a large organisation like I do, which is working on knowledge capital, we’re not building anything. Umm, sometimes uh, it can be a challenge to persuade people that this is the right way of doing things, but since gaining qualification I feel like I’ve been able to get colleagues or stakeholders buy in to activities or pieces of work more easily.
How was the PRINCE2 course?
00:03:25 Madeleine Parsley: So, I did the Foundation and the Practitioner in one week. I found it quite intense and there was a lot of learning obviously. They were quite long days, but I definitely found during the two of them together really, really helpful. It was easy for me to block out a week for the training rather than find time to self-learn and fit it in around my other commitments.
00:03:55 Madeleine Parsley: I enjoyed the classroom element of it, although it was online, people were willing to participate. I definitely found that having prior experience of project management was helpful and I was able to pick up the information quite quickly because of that background.
00:04:23 Sevcan Yasa: And just in terms of the Practitioner, do you have knowledge before do you feel like the Practitioner course was slightly harder than the Foundation? Or do you think that the Practitioner was, you know, just the same level as you expected?
00:04:39 Madeleine Parsley: I preferred the Practitioner exam to the Foundation exam. I found it. Yeah, I I felt much more confident about the Practitioner than I did about the Foundation. The Foundation was more about testing your knowledge rather than your understanding, so it felt like a memory test, whereas the Practitioner I enjoyed more because you had the open book aspect of it, and it was more realistic because you were applying your understanding to a case study.
How did Knowledge Train stand out?
00:05:23 Sevcan Yasa: And how did you find out about Knowledge Train?
00:05:27 Madeleine Parsley: Google. I think. I think it was just something that came up when we were looking for a provider.
00:05:33 Sevcan Yasa: And in order to understand whether you actually wanted to go through with Knowledge Train, what did you do?
00:05:43 Madeleine Parsley: So, we well, I looked up a few different providers and looked at like the availability of courses. What kind of courses they offered because I knew that there were a couple of us from my organisation that did it and I knew that we both we all needed Foundation and Practitioner and understanding there was a critical business need for it and we wanted to get it done quickly.
00:06:12 Madeleine Parsley: It was also working out cost efficiencies and yeah, I wrote a paper on it and presented it to senior colleagues who picked Knowledge Train.
Would you recommend Knowledge Train?
00:06:29 Sevcan Yasa: Would you recommend Knowledge Train to friends, families and colleagues?
00:06:38 Madeleine Parsley: Yeah.
00:06:39 Sevcan Yasa: Any specific thing that’s stood out for you?
00:06:47 Madeleine Parsley: I thought I thought the course and the delivery and the website was quite easy to navigate, like picking the tests like the exam slots. I liked the availability. There was sort of almost like 24-hour availability which really suits some of my colleagues who have, you know, childcare commitments, and there was a lot of flexibility around that so that was really good.
