As a PMP certified project manager you have to earn 60 PDUs every three years to recertify your credential. Each PDU will “cost” you 1 hour of your time. It may sound daunting to think of spending 60 hours on earning PDUs over the next three years but it’s actually very easy.
It’s just 20 hours per year, less than 2 hours a month. Plan on spending those hours learning something that will improve your job performance or by doing something that helps others in your profession. Either way, it’s a rewarding experience that takes very little time if you do it regularly.
The six PDU Categories come in two PDU Divisions: Education and Giving Back to the Profession.
The Education Division allows you to earn PDUs while learning new and valuable PM concepts through a variety of media. You can take a classroom course, attend a lecture or seminar or participate in and event or a conference. You can choose self-study rather than a more formal activity, too.
The Giving Back to the Profession Division contains three categories with a big variety of activities. You can be a speaker or instructor, moderate a discussion, volunteer on a project for a charitable group or other non-profit. You can coach or mentor someone on project management topics. As you can see, this category allows you many fulfilling opportunities to serve the PMP community as well as the community you live in.
For you as a PMP certified project manager it’s important to understand the rules that PMI has laid out in regards to earning your PDUs. So in our next several PDU tips we are going to go through each of the 6 PDU Categories in detail. In that way you will know the rules before you start playing the game.
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