The short version: the main places to get a recognised project management certification are PMI (for the PMP and CAPM), the Association for Project Management (for PMQ), AXELOS/PeopleCert (for PRINCE2), and Google’s Project Management Certificate on Coursera for a cheaper entry point. Pick based on where you live and work, not on which badge looks shiniest, because a US recruiter and a UK public sector hiring manager are looking for two different pieces of paper.
The certifications that exist and who runs them
There are dozens of project management courses out there calling themselves certifications. There are only a handful that hiring managers, recruiters and ATS filters recognise. Here they are, in order of how often I see them requested in real UK and US job listings.
PMP (Project Management Professional) – run by PMI
The Project Management Institute runs the PMP, and it’s still the one most large US and multinational employers screen for. You need either 36 months leading projects plus a four-year degree, or 60 months without one, plus 35 hours of project management education. The exam is 180 questions over 230 minutes, and it costs $405 for PMI members or $555 if you’re not a member (PMI membership itself is $139 a year, so joining first almost always saves you money). Most people I’ve worked with spend 60 to 120 hours studying over 8 to 12 weeks before sitting it.
CAPM (Certified Associate in Project Management) – also PMI
This is the entry version, no experience required, just 23 hours of project management education. It costs $300 for members and $435 for non-members. The exam is 90 questions in 3 hours. If you’re trying to break into project management with zero track record, this is the more honest starting point, and it pairs well with the kind of roles covered in the current remote job market for project managers, where junior and associate roles often list CAPM as preferred rather than required.
PRINCE2 – run by AXELOS, exams delivered through PeopleCert
This is the one that matters in the UK, especially in government, construction, and public sector work. PRINCE2 Foundation on its own costs around £400 to £600 through most training providers, and the combined Foundation plus Practitioner package runs £700 to £1,200 depending on whether you do classroom, online, or self-study. Unlike PMP, there’s no experience requirement for Foundation, which is why it’s the one I tell career changers to start with if they’re job hunting in Britain.
APM PMQ (Project Management Qualification) – Association for Project Management
APM is the UK’s chartered body for the profession, similar in standing to a chartered accountancy body, and their PMQ sits between PRINCE2 and PMP in terms of depth. Expect to pay £650 to £975 through an accredited training provider, with the qualification itself run as a written exam. This is the one that carries weight if you eventually want Chartered Project Professional status, which is a real, protected UK designation.
Google Project Management Certificate – Coursera
This is the cheapest legitimate route in. It’s a Coursera subscription at roughly $49 a month, and most people finish it in three to six months, so total cost usually lands between $150 and $300. It won’t get you past a strict ATS filter looking for “PMP required,” but it will teach you Agile, Scrum, and the actual vocabulary of the job, and Google’s own career certificate programme has direct employer partnerships that some other certs don’t.
Scrum certifications – Scrum Alliance and Scrum.org
If you’re heading into tech or product teams, a Certified ScrumMaster through Scrum Alliance (a two-day course, usually $995 to $1,500) or a Professional Scrum Master I through Scrum.org ($200, self-study, no course required) is often more useful than a general PM certification. I’ve watched software teams hire someone with a PSM I over a PMP holder because it signalled they’d run sprints, not just read about them.
How I’d choose, step by step
Here’s the process I walk clients through when they ask me this exact question, because “which certification is best” is the wrong question. The right one is “which certification matches the job I’m applying for next.”
- Step 1: pull up five to ten real job listings for the role you want, right now, not roles you hope exist. Search “project manager” plus your industry and location.
- Step 2: count which certification appears most often in the required or preferred sections.
- Step 3: check whether you already meet the experience requirement, most people underestimate how much informal project leading they’ve already done.
- Step 4: pick a training provider that’s accredited by the certifying body itself (PMI’s own site lists Authorized Training Partners, AXELOS lists accredited providers) rather than a random Udemy course claiming to “prepare” you.
- Step 5: book the exam date before you finish studying, not after. A deadline changes how you study, every single time.
- Step 6: study using practice exams more than reading, PMP candidates who do 4 or more full practice exams pass at noticeably higher rates than those who just reread the PMBOK guide.
- Step 7: once certified, put the specific project outcomes on your CV, not just the letters after your name.
The bit nobody tells you before you pay for the exam
Here’s what I’ve watched happen more times than I can count, and it’s the part most guides skip over. A certification does not get you hired on its own. I worked with a woman, I’ll call her Sarah, who spent £1,100 and four months getting her PRINCE2 Practitioner while working full time in customer service, hoping it would be her ticket into project management. She got the certification. She then applied to 40 roles over three months and got two interviews, and both times the interviewer barely mentioned PRINCE2. What they asked about was projects she’d run, even small ones, even ones she didn’t think counted, like reorganising her team’s onboarding process or coordinating a system migration nobody else wanted to touch.
The certification got her past the ATS keyword filter. It did not get her the job. What got her the job, eventually, was going back through her work history and pulling out three specific examples of things she’d planned, delivered, and measured, then rebuilding her CV around those stories with the PRINCE2 as a supporting line, not the headline. If you’re choosing where to get a certification, choose the one that matches the job market you’re applying into, but spend at least as much energy building two or three real project stories you can tell in an interview. Nobody hires a badge. They hire someone who’s proven they can deliver something on time with a mess of competing priorities, which is what the job is, day to day, once you’re in it.
Free and cheap ways to build the “real project” side while you study
If you don’t have paid project management experience yet, you can manufacture legitimate examples while you’re studying for the certification:
- Run a project inside a volunteer organisation, a school PTA, a local charity event, and document it like a real project: scope, timeline, budget, stakeholders, what went wrong.
- Offer to project manage something unglamorous inside your current job that nobody wants to own, an office move, a software rollout, a process change.
- Freelance a small coordination project through a site like Upwork just to have one paid, documented example.
- If you’re coming from an adjacent field, look at what the role involves, not the job title. What a remote project manager job really involves day to day is a useful reality check before you spend hundreds of pounds on any exam, because the job is often less about Gantt charts and more about chasing people for updates and managing difficult conversations.
What this costs in total, realistically
People always ask me for one number, so here’s the honest range, all in, including training and the exam:
- CAPM: $400 to $700 total, including a self-paced course
- PMP: $700 to $2,500 total, depending on whether you self-study or take a paid bootcamp
- PRINCE2 Foundation and Practitioner combined: £700 to £1,500 through a UK training provider
- APM PMQ: £650 to £1,200 including course materials
- Google Project Management Certificate: $150 to $300
- Scrum Alliance CSM: $995 to $1,500 for the two-day course
If you’re not sure project management is even the right lane
I get asked this a lot by people mid career change, and it’s a fair question before you drop £1,000 on an exam. Project management skills overlap heavily with other coordination-heavy roles. If you’re weighing this against something like moving into remote HR management, the certifications and entry paths are surprisingly similar: structured courses, a recognised body, and a real portfolio mattering more than the letters. And if the appeal of project management is really the flexibility and the remote element rather than the discipline itself, it’s worth comparing it honestly against something like learning social media management from scratch, which has a far lower cost of entry and a shorter runway to your first paid client.
My honest recommendation
If you’re in the UK and job hunting in the next six months, start with PRINCE2 Foundation. It’s cheaper, faster, and it’s what most UK recruiters and public sector job specs name. If you’re targeting US companies or multinationals, or you already have three or more years of project experience, go straight for the PMP, it carries more weight globally and pays for itself faster in salary bump, typically £5,000 to £10,000 higher starting salary in my experience with clients who’ve made the jump. If you have neither the money nor the experience yet, do the Google certificate first, it’s cheap enough that getting it wrong costs you almost nothing, and it’ll tell you within three months whether you enjoy this kind of work before you commit real money to PMI or AXELOS exams.
Frequently asked questions
Which project management certification is best for beginners with no experience?
CAPM through PMI or PRINCE2 Foundation through AXELOS are both designed for people with no prior project experience, and the Google Project Management Certificate on Coursera is the cheapest way to test the waters before committing to either.
Is PMP worth it if I already have years of experience but no formal certification?
Usually yes, especially for US or multinational roles, because it’s the certification most large employers screen for in applicant tracking systems, and it typically comes with a measurable salary increase once you’re certified.
How long does it take to get a project management certification?
CAPM and PRINCE2 Foundation can both be done in a few weeks with focused study. PMP typically takes 8 to 12 weeks of preparation once you meet the experience requirement, and the Google certificate averages three to six months on a part time basis.
Do employers check if the certification is real?
Yes, most credentialing bodies including PMI and AXELOS run a public certification registry that employers can search directly, so listing a certification you haven’t earned is easy to catch and will end an application immediately.
