CAPM Certification Prerequisites

CAPM stands for Certified Associate in Project Management. CAPM certification is a professional certification for Project Managers with less than three years of experience or people who plan to launch a new career in project management. You might worry that CAPM certification will be too hard to learn. This guide will help you understand the best methods for learning CAPM certification and what you should study first to make the learning process easier. This way, you’ll be successful however you choose to apply your new skills. 

What is CAPM Certification?

CAPM stands for Certified Associate in Project Management. CAPM is a professional certification for Project Managers with little to no experience or for aspiring Project Managers interested in launching a new career in project management.

CAPM is the most entry-level professional certification offered by the Project Management Institute (PMI). CAPM certification is highly recommended for new and aspiring Project Managers with less than three years of experience. Gaining CAPM certification will make you stand out on job applications, increase your salary and opportunities, and ensure you have the necessary training and credentials to launch a new career as a Project Manager.

Project management is a very hot career path. A Project Manager is responsible for managing a project, including planning, organizing, monitoring, directing, and completing various elements of that project. PMI estimates that project management jobs will see a 33% increase over the next five years, with 22 million new project management jobs created by 2027. The exploding demand for Project Managers will lead to around 90 million jobs in the U.S. that require project management skills. 

The Project Management Institute (PMI) is a global education, networking, and professional association for Project Managers. They have been largely responsible for defining the field of project management for the past few decades through the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK). PMI offers certification programs, has local chapters in more than 80 countries, organizes academic and market research programs, and offers professional development for project management professionals. PMI’s more advanced Project Management Professional (PMP) is the gold standard in project management certification. 

Read more about CAPM Certification and why you should learn it.

What Can You Do with CAPM Certification?

CNBC calls project management “a great way for people with non-tech backgrounds to earn lucrative tech salaries.” The Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM) is the world's leading entry-level project management certification. Earning a CAPM certification will make you stand out on the job market, open the door to more opportunities, and increase your salary. 

We are in the golden age of project management: some of the industries with the largest growth in project management jobs include construction and manufacturing, information services, management and professional services, utilities, and oil and gas. Across industries, Project Managers make above-average salaries. According to PMI, the median annual salary for a Project Manager is around $116,000. The average U.S. salary for all occupations is around $50,000, which means that becoming a Project Manager would most likely nearly double your salary. For example, in an interview with CNBC, a Project Manager reports that switching from higher education to project management more than tripled her salary. 

CAPM-certified Project Managers earn even more than their non-certified colleagues: PMI reports that CAPM certification results in around a 25% salary increase.

Is CAPM Certification Easy to Earn?

The Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM) is a highly-regarded professional certification. One of the reasons that CAPM-certified Project Managers are well-paid and sought-after is that it will take some education and preparation to become CAPM-certified. 

However, becoming CAPM certified is the fastest way to launch a new, lucrative career in the hot career path of project management.

What to Know Before Learning CAPM Certification Skills

Earning a CAPM certification means you’re ready to launch a career as a Project Manager. This means that in addition to exam preparation, you’ll need to be prepared for your new career.

Here are a few things that you’ll want to make sure you learn before launching your new career as a Project Manager. 

Soft Skills

Soft skills define how you relate to your work and others. Project Managers need excellent soft skills, as much of their job requires organization and leadership skills. Some of the most important soft skills a Project Manager can have include communication, leadership, time management, risk management, budgeting, and conflict resolution. 

Successful Project Managers need excellent written and verbal communication skills. According to PMI, about 90% of the Project Manager's workday is spent communicating. You can expect to do a lot of communicating as a Project Manager: taking calls, answering emails, scheduling meetings, handling complaints, giving reports and presentations to stakeholders, resolving team conflicts, holding employees accountable for deliverables, and receiving check-ins. 

Developing these skills can be difficult, and demonstrating them can be tricky. One recommended way is to start finding community projects to manage: for example, you might manage the project of cleaning litter out of a local riverbed. 

Project Management Education Hours

Before you can apply to take the CAPM-certification exam, you will need to be able to meet some education prerequisites: a secondary education and approved project management education hours. All of your education hours must be completed before taking the CAPM-certification exam.

The first prerequisite is a secondary degree: a high school diploma, an associate’s degree, or the global equivalent. You will need to have earned this before applying to take the CAPM certification exam. 

PMI requires 23 hours of formal project management education. According to their CAPM-certification exam preparation guide, these hours must be from an approved source, such as a technical school like Noble Desktop or a university. Self-directed learning is not accepted toward the project management education requirements. 

Bootcamps are a great way to acquire the necessary hours to apply for CAPM certification. Noble Desktop’s Project Management Bootcamp offers project management training on PMBOK and is a great way to prepare for CAPM certification. Your expert instructor will be a PMP-certified Project Manager who guides you hands-on using real-world projects to develop project management skills in the five phases of a project, project management terminology, project costs and budgets, resource management, and Agile project management frameworks. Graduates earn a Certificate in Project Management, which is sharable on LinkedIn and have approved education hours toward CAPM certification.

CAPM Certification Exam Material

Once you’ve met all the prerequisites, you must pass the CAPM-certification exam to become CAPM-certified. Studying for the exam is necessary if you want to become certified. 

The CAPM certification exam has 150 questions, and you have 3 hours to finish. For many years, all of PMI’s certification exams were administered by a third party. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, PMI has offered online certification exams, which means you can get certified from anywhere. If you’re planning to take the CAPM-certification exam online, taking an online course or bootcamp, such as Noble Desktop’s Project Management Bootcamp, could be a great way to prepare.

The CAPM certification exam is updated regularly, most recently in 2024. The most recent update included a significant change to the exam’s content. You’ll want to ensure that any courses or online resources you use are updated for the 2024 version. 

Key Insights

• To become CAPM certified, you will need 23 hours of project management education.
• Project Managers spend around 90% of their time communicating.
• You can receive comprehensive CAPM certification training through an in-person or live online course with Noble Desktop.

Learn CAPM Certification Skills with Hands-on Training at Noble Desktop

The Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM) is the top professional certification for new and aspiring Project Managers. Earning a CAPM certification is highly recommended for anyone serious about pursuing a new career in project management. Being CAPM-certified will create more job opportunities and lead to a higher salary: reports show that CAPM-certified Project Managers earn around $101,000, 25% more than non-certified entry-level Project Managers. 

There are prerequisites to taking the CAPM exam. Before you can apply to take the CAPM-certification exam, you will need to have 0 to 3 years of project management job experience, a high school diploma, and 23 hours of project management education. Enrolling in a bootcamp like Noble Desktop’s Project Management Bootcamp is a great way to accrue the required education hours to take the exam.

Noble Desktop is a coding, business, and design school that offers project management courses live online and at its state-of-the-art campus in Midtown Manhattan. All of Noble Desktop’s project management courses are taught by PMP-certified Project Managers using Noble Desktop’s highly-rated, unique approach to learning: expert instructors teach a “micro-lecture” and then immediately guide students through applying what they just learned. This unique approach to training ensures that students learn the skills they need to get hired.

Noble Desktop’s Project Management Bootcamp is highly recommended for aspiring Project Managers and those seeking CAPM certification. Students are guided hands-on through managing real-world projects to develop skills in the five phases of project management, foundational project management concepts and terminology, project scope, resource management, project costs and budgeting, and risk management. Students also get an overview of several Agile Project Management Frameworks: Scrum, Extreme Programming (XP), and Kansan. Graduates earn a Certificate of Completion to demonstrate their credentials.