Learn About Top Project Management Degree Programs Online
Short and long-term projects comprise much of the business world, which in turn has created a constant demand for project management professionals. This project tapestry engages exhaustive teams and departments. Project managers are trained to coordinate a cross-section of business needs, personnel, and materials to return a completed project on time and within budgetary constraints.
Degree Types
Project Management is an auxiliary business discipline. An over abundance of PM degrees and continuing education courses may be had through online programs. The reason? A large percentage of students that seek the programs are working business professionals. My article “Learn About Distance Learning Programs” offers further insight to online education, but what’s most important is the flexibility students find in online courses.
Associates Degrees
Associates degrees in Project Management teach students basic business principles that expand to include those more akin to project management, such as business planning, human resources, and budgets and finance. Since so much of the job relates to interaction with other professionals students are also encouraged to take psychology and sociology courses. These degrees typically take two years if pursued full-time. Graduates are prepared for entry-level jobs or for transfer to a four-year business program.
Bachelors Degrees
Four-year Bachelors degrees in business administration are commonplace. Now many more programs offer the Project Management concentration. Broad based business principles cover marketing, finance, leadership, corporate environments and organizational behavior, economics, and information systems. Deeper layers of business curriculum hone in on know-how necessary for next-gen Project Managers: leadership and human resources, sales and marketing, budgets and cost management, and organizational skills. Armed with a four-year degree students may apply their knowledge in entry-level business positions, but often choose to pursue a graduate business degree.
Masters in Project Management
Masters degrees in project management provide solid training for business students who require the management skills necessary to build an effective project manager. In conjunction with the PM courses, required coursework includes advanced business management courses, such as decision-making, marketing, and business strategies. Advanced PM courses focus at a management level and include: leadership and decision-making management, marketing and sales, management of information systems, and product management.
Doctoral Degrees
Doctoral degrees are rare; PM is a practical application and so much of post-graduate work emphasizes academics and research that a Ph.D. in a straightforward Project Management discipline is largely impractical. That said, there are post-graduate degree programs that emphasize issues in organizational management that might offer adjunct insight into PM.
Professional Opportunity
The volume of business administration programs that now offer students an opportunity to concentrate in Project Management has grown significantly. Perhaps this is in part to the sideways growth of business both domestic and global. In fact, the global demands of business might very well make way for such degrees as International Project Manager in the next mutation of business degrees.
