Prince2 for A level student?

I done Prince2 Foundation myself when I was about 23 & found it was a good intro to project management and didn't think it was too difficult even with no previous experience. I then studied Agile Certified Practitioner which was quite a good course... there's plenty of courses out there like PMP & Scrum Master, it often depends what he enjoys and wants to get into.

[original PM]

Rather than look at a PM course he should maybe look at doing Product Management/BA - which is more on the digital/agile side of things.

This seems to be a lot more assessable to younger people and does not rely on an ability to kiss ass and play the politics game (mainly because rather than look at business wants you look at user/customer needs - and so that finance director who insists he wants a suite of reports no one will ever use to make himself look important can literally go **** himself)

But ....

[northernladuk]

Is it that he wants to get into Project Management?
If so I would weigh up the choice between Prince2 and Agile.
I have found quite often that private sector are adopting Agile a lot of frequently the P2.
P2 is still only very much within Public Sector.

He wants to get in to something around building. Civil engineering, chartered surveyor etc. He's not sure at the moment but Cad and PM methodology should help get to interviews on top of his A levels. It's just an exercise to look one better than the next guy to secure a better apprenticeship than actually instill any skills if that makes sense.

[MonkeysUncle]

Is it that he wants to get into Project Management?
If so I would weigh up the choice between Prince2 and Agile.
I have found quite often that private sector are adopting Agile a lot of frequently the P2.
P2 is still only very much within Public Sector.

[northernladuk]

pretty much this ^^^^^^

When I did PII the foundation was multiple guess so a total piece of p*ss.
The practitioner was written so you had to actually understand it. Similarly most other people on the course were thick as mince, and completely failed to understand the abstract concept of product based planning so they all failed. If NLUKs youngest is reasonably academic (maths and physics A level suggest so) then he/she'd be able to both (foundation and practitioner) in a week without any project experience.

It's not really the project experience he's missing. It's the business experience. The acronyms and business speak is just going to make his head spin, let alone the course. I don't mind if he didn't pass it, just to get some keywords on his CV and some knowledge for the interview but if he can't grasp the business wording he wouldn't be able to relay it back in an interview. Might plump for the Foundation sometime in the future though. Concentrating on the Acad line at the moment. Being a student he gets the software for free so a useful start.

EDIT: I do wonder if #1 child were working as a full time member of staff for NLUK LTD. whether the company could pay for the course......

Being 17 has it's challenges around employment let alone trying to justify it and even if I could be bothered it couldn't because it's a new skill so didn't even consider going down that route.

[Lance]

Could he pass Prince 2? I suspect yes as it's a numpty exam required by companies but IMO adds little to no value without experience. I first did P2 back in 2005 and have since resat to keep it up to date - both times there were absolute numpties on the course that I think would struggle to tie their own shoe laces that passed both Foundation and Practitioner.

pretty much this ^^^^^^

When I did PII the foundation was multiple guess so a total piece of p*ss.
The practitioner was written so you had to actually understand it. Similarly most other people on the course were thick as mince, and completely failed to understand the abstract concept of product based planning so they all failed. If NLUKs youngest is reasonably academic (maths and physics A level suggest so) then he/she'd be able to both (foundation and practitioner) in a week without any project experience.


EDIT: I do wonder if #1 child were working as a full time member of staff for NLUK LTD. whether the company could pay for the course......

[BR14]

- both times there were absolute numpties on the course that I think would struggle to tie their own shoe laces that passed both Foundation and Practitioner.

So, standard PM's then ;-)

[vwdan]

Having known quite a few people with Prince 2 qualifications, I'm sure it's no harder than a Physics A level, for example. The only difficulty for your son is that not only has he no PM experience, he's unlikely to know how the corporate or even adult world works.

Agreed with this - one of the biggest things I'm thankful for is doing an otherwise pointless IT course that had a bunch of ex, and some current part time, industry lecturers. Learnt a lot of words and a lot of "real life" tips through those guys. I remember submitting a really detailed answer to a pretend "tender" style question - I got top marks, but a comment saying "Great work, but remember, you won't have time to write at this length, practice condensing it down".

Just knowing that the concept of change management, SLA's and so on was a "thing" really helped me in my first job where others were floundering and trying to figure out what the hell a key stakeholder was.

[Whorty]

Could he pass Prince 2? I suspect yes as it's a numpty exam required by companies but IMO adds little to no value without experience. I first did P2 back in 2005 and have since resat to keep it up to date - both times there were absolute numpties on the course that I think would struggle to tie their own shoe laces that passed both Foundation and Practitioner.

Current place I'm working, a few days in I meet a PA/secretary who proclaims that she is a PM like me. I asked her what projects she'd managed and she said, none yet but I've passed my Prince 2. And there in lies the issue - anyone can pass Prince 2 even with no PM experience, all you need to do is learn the questions.

For your son, autoCAD might be a more practical course for this stage in his life. No one will give him a PM role based on his P2 exams, but they may give him a role and a start in life based on autoCAD. He can always do P2 later when he has a couple of days to spare/waste!

[WTFH]

Funnily enough same. I was an electrical designer and no one was interested in the new fangled Cad machine we bought so sent myself on a course and it all went south from there.

2nd year project was about using AutoCAD to automate tasks (designing custom pressure and temperature gauge dials). I learned to code in AutoLISP. Found bugs in the original software and for at least 4 releases after that I actually got a mention in the code.
By the final year, I was tutoring the lecturer on using the software.

[northernladuk]

Send him on an AutoCAD course.

It was as a result of using AutoCAD at university that I ended up in IT.

Funnily enough same. I was an electrical designer and no one was interested in the new fangled Cad machine we bought so sent myself on a course and it all went south from there.

[WTFH]

Send him on an AutoCAD course.

It was as a result of using AutoCAD at university that I ended up in IT.

[northernladuk]

Having known quite a few people with Prince 2 qualifications, I'm sure it's no harder than a Physics A level, for example. The only difficulty for your son is that not only has he no PM experience, he's unlikely to know how the corporate or even adult world works.

And that's exactly what I'm thinking the problem will be. As soon as they start on about stake holders, governance, change and so on he's just going to get lost. I remember I could have passed mine just doing the sample papers as at least 80% of the questions were repeated from papers available on the Web but some of the blurb says its changed.

Might have to rethink this one.

[NotAllThere]

Would an A level student be able to pass Prince 2 foundation or is it all just going to be gobbledegook to him?

Having known quite a few people with Prince 2 qualifications, I'm sure it's no harder than a Physics A level, for example. The only difficulty for your son is that not only has he no PM experience, he's unlikely to know how the corporate or even adult world works.

[northernladuk]

My youngest is starting his 2nd year Maths, Physics and Design A levels and is looking to get in to civil engineering or chartered surveying. He doesn't want to go to uni so looking at degree apprenticeships which I imagine will be in high demand.

I was thinking of sending him on a Prince 2 or Autocad course so he looks a little more attractive than every other A level student but it's a long time since I did Prince 2 foundation and I hear the exams might have changed so can't just learn the answers from past papers.

Would an A level student be able to pass Prince 2 foundation or is it all just going to be gobbledegook to him? The courses say no pre reqs but having project experience is useful.

Anyone been on one recently that could comment please?