PPM Course Information

Find the latest project management course dates, schedules, fees, and downloadable brochures in one convenient place. Explore upcoming intakes for the University of Pretoria's project management programmes and choose the course that best fits your career goals.
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The difficulty of choosing a project management course

How should one choose a continuing education course in project management?

A vast number of project management courses are available; shorter ones with durations from two to five days and more advanced, longer ones – typically two years for master’s degree courses (and of course longer for PhD programmes in project management). These courses come at a range of prices from free online courses to quite expensive courses with extensive residential blocks.

People often wonder whether they should opt for a generic project management course or for a specialized course such as an Agile project management course, an IT project management course, a construction management course or a course on project leadership.
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The Advanced Programme in Project Management (APPM) takes you beyond the basic project management principles focusing on mastering advanced concepts and the integration of modern technologies and approaches to project lifecycles.

Strategic aspects are balanced with practical application through the extensive use of software techniques, while elevating your skills and applying advanced risk and critical chain tools or techniques to project plans, as well as applying negotiating skills and techniques to project contracts.
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The fully online Project Management course offers the flexibility to study whenever and wherever it suits you—no travel or time off work required. This comprehensive, eight-module Programme in Project Management (PPM), delivered entirely online is equivalent to the 20-day attendance course.

Since its inception in 1997, the PPM has been presented in contact classes over 200 times and has benefited thousands of participants, earning a strong reputation in the industry. Available online since 2020, the course is regularly updated to reflect the latest developments. One recent enhancement allows PPM Online participants to choose between two elective modules: Legal Aspects for Project Managers or Agile Project Management.
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This practical project management short course introduces project management basics needed for project success and teaches a process to generate a basic project plan, including a project schedule.

The course is fully online, and you work whenever and wherever it suits you – no travelling and no leave from work is required. Any scheduled interactive session will be recorded so that you can view it when it suits you.

Thousands of people have already benefitted from the Online Short Course on Project Management Principles, Practices and Scheduling. The content is updated regularly to keep up with new developments.
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The University of Pretoria contributes significantly to the development of project management skills in other African countries.

A number of people from other African countries are enrolled on the 4^th intake of the 20-day project management training course, the Programme in Project Management (Referred to as PPM 4 of 2015).

Countries represented include:

Zimbabwe (3 people – including one from the World Bank)
Malawi
Namibia
Ethiopia (from the African Union Commission)
Nigeria
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Education and project management skills development training at the University of Pretoria has a long history; the discipline was already well established in the Department of Civil Engineering in the 1980s. Project management is a multi-disciplinary field of study and, as a credible, large multi-disciplinary university, it was recognised that the University of Pretoria is ideally suited to lead in this field.

While short courses had been offered before, a more comprehensive (16 to 20 days on campus) continuing education program, the PPM, was launched in 1997 and was later supplemented by a more advanced programme with similar duration for people who completed the PPM successfully. In January 1999 the MPM (Masters in Project Management) programme was launched. This programme obtained the accreditation of the Global Accreditation Center of the Project Management Institute (PMI) in 2008 and it is currently still the only programme on the African Continent with this status. While the MPM is specifically aimed at graduate engineers and scientists, the PPM benefits from the MPM as the PPM is to a large extent taught by the same lecturers.
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We regularly get positive feedback from people who did the Program in Project Management (PPM) but does this program also contribute to other objectives of the University such as research?

People who did the PPM and the APPM (Advanced Program in Project Management) are sometimes asked to participate in surveys that contribute to project management research in South Africa and beyond our borders. One such survey on project management maturity in the engineering and construction industries was recently published.

While previous studies attempted to determine how the success of South African Information Technology (IT) projects related to the project management maturity of the organisations that executed the projects, this study was conducted in the engineering and construction sectors. The paper reports on a structured questionnaire distributed to 1625 individuals mainly in the South African engineering and construction industries from which 255 responses were received.
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Information about the Programme in Project Management (PPM)

Information in this document is subject to change without notice.

Programme content

1. Project management principles, practices and scheduling;
2. The people side of project management;
3. Project procurement and contract management;
4. Legal aspects for project managers;
5. Project quality management;
6. Project risk management;
7. Financial principles and project cost management;
8. Project management in the business context.

Limited tailoring to the content has been made for in-house presentations at companies, specifically ones listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.
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Watch these PPM videos to receive helpful tips for online learning and listen to our Overall Top Student testimonial to hear about highlights during her studies and how she will apply the skills and knowledge obtained into her career.
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The following Project Management Courses are presented at the Protea Hotel Fire & Ice!:
1. Weekend Project Management Course
2. Midweek Project Management Course
Please click here, if you need directions or accommodation to attend these courses.