PM Education and Certification

There is a Prometric Testing Center hosted by the International University in Geneva:

International University
ICC Building
Route de Pre-Bois 20
CH-1215 Geneva 15
Tel. : +41 (0)22 710 71 10/12
Fax : +41 (0)22 710 71 11
www.iun.ch

The location is in front of the airport Genéve-Cointrin. Please see the map at http://www.iun.ch/html/map.html. Exams can be taken on most any Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and one Saturday per month.

NOTE: To register for and schedule a PMP Certification Exam, please contact Prometric by telephone at +31-26-352-1577. The eligibility letter will provide complete details for scheduling an examination.

For several years, your Chapter representatives have been fighting for a computer-based test center in the Zurich area, since there is currently only one test center in the country, located in Geneva. In the meantime, your Chapter organized the opportunity to take paper based exams (so called PBT) on different locations in the Zürich area.

All test centers worldwide and also the PBTs are operated by a PMI contractor called Prometric. Unfortunately Prometric is not willing to open a second test center in Switzerland. This decision is based on internal statistics that shows that: The current statistics of test takers a) does not justify a second test center in Switzerland and b) still indicates that the majority of test takers come from the French speaking area?.our analysis showed that Geneva would be the location that was most convenient for the largest number of test takers based on their home addresses.

This outcome is not surprising because Prometric "does not include the about 100 persons who are taking a Paper Based Test organized by the Chapter". They also do not include all the test takers traveling to Frankfurt or Munich and those taking a company internal examination, as paper & pencil testing.

In the past we had a lot of issues and work to schedule and provide the paper based exams. It took a lot of time to organize them and even more time to solve those issues. This and the fact that those test takers are not counted for the statistics led us to the decision not to host public PBTs any longer (starting with 2010). For interested organizations of course it will be possible to accomplish internal PBTs and we are glad if we can help here.

The Prometric test center in Geneva is open from Monday to Thursday. Prometric offered to expand the opening hours in Geneva to some Fridays and Saturdays starting in June. To allow long-term planning for test takers, we asked Prometric for the exact dates to publish on our website. Unfortunately Prometric can only provide short-term availability, because "The center's schedule is dynamic based on the demand they have for testing appointments so it will be difficult for them to commit to a calendar of open dates...in the future, the best way for candidates to search for a Friday or Saturday test date is by going to the Prometric website and looking for availability".

Prometric is reassessing their statistics yearly. As a Chapter, we hope that our decision will help to bring the statistics to a more realistic level and that more examination locations will be offered in the future. We shall also thank all the interested companies in hosting a test center in Zurich for their support and commitment over last year.

In the PMI Switzerland Chapter, there are almost 700 PMI certified Project Management Professionals (PMPs®).

The PMP is the project management credential of choice for numerous industries and companies. By attaining the PMP credential, your name will be included in the largest and most prestigious group of certified professionals in the project management community.

To be eligible for the PMP certification, you must first meet specific education and experience requirements and agree to adhere to a code of professional conduct. The final step in becoming a PMP is passing a multiple-choice examination designed to objectively assess and measure your project management knowledge. This computer- based examination is administered globally.

In addition, those who have been granted the PMP credential must demonstrate an ongoing professional commitment to the field of project management by satisfying PMI's Continuing Certification Requirements Program.

The CAPM proves that a person masters the terminology used by Project Management Professionals (PMP). It does however not require the same amount of experience nor the full depth of knowledge that is required for the PMP certification. The CAPM credential is targeted for:

• Project team members
  
• Students who wish to have an in-depth knowledge, but still lack the experience for applying for the PMP
  
• Junior Project Managers who will do the CAPM as a first step towards becoming a PMP

Among the requirements are either 1,500 hours of project management experience OR 23 hours of project management training, as well as an exam with 150 multiple choice questions.