Career advice

Become a Project Manager

Project managers ensure that projects run smoothly and finish on time and on budget. Find out what skills you need to become a project manager and get your career started with online project management courses from top universities.

  • Best jobs in the UK #14
  • Job satisfaction 3.6 / 5
  • Median base salary £39,000
  • UK job openings/month 7,320
Source: Glassdoor's Best Jobs (2019)

What skills do you need to become a project manager?

  • Organisation

    As a project manager, you’ll learn to manage time, budgets, expectations, paperwork and even people. So you’ll need to be organised.

  • Calmness

    In every project, things can go wrong. Staying calm and getting things back on track is a vital part of project management.

  • Communication

    If a project gets difficult, you’ll need to learn negotiation and communication skills to resolve any conflicts.

  • Empathy

    Professional project managers work with people from diverse backgrounds in diverse industry. Being able to empathise with them is key.

Develop these skills. Start a short project management course online with FutureLearn

Darden School of Business, University of Virginia

Getting Started with Agile and Design Thinking

4.6 (13 reviews)

Get an introduction to agile product development and design thinking so you can build better digital products.

4 weeks

4 hrs per week

Included in Unlimited

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The Open University

Project Management: Beyond the Basics

4.7 (74 reviews)

Build your existing project management knowledge and develop the skills to manage teams and deliver effective projects.

4 weeks

3 hrs per week

Included in Unlimited

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Darden School of Business, University of Virginia

Fundamentals of Project Planning and Management

4.7 (49 reviews)

Learn the basics of project planning and management so you can run effective projects at work or in daily life.

4 weeks

2 hrs per week

Included in Unlimited

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The Open University & The Open University Business School

Business Fundamentals: Project Management

4.6 (59 reviews)

Discover project management skills, such as the Gannt chart, that will help you learn to manage a project life cycle effectively.

4 weeks

3 hrs per week

Included in Unlimited

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Coventry University

Foundations of Project Management

4.5 (41 reviews)

Explore the fundamental aspects of project management and develop your understanding of traditional project lifecycles.

2 weeks

3 hrs per week

Included in Unlimited

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Coventry University

Project Initiation

Explore the techniques needed to develop project initiation documentation and examine the triple constraint of project management.

2 weeks

3 hrs per week

Included in Unlimited

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Anglia Ruskin University

Project Management Principles, Practices and Systems

4.4 (25 reviews)

Grow your project management skills, and understand project management methodologies and challenges.

2 weeks

4 hrs per week

Included in Unlimited

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Browse more courses in Business & Management

What do people say about these project management courses?

I found the course to be very well presented and a great refresher, or perhaps an introduction for those that haven't studied project management before. Overall, for such a short course, it was crammed with content and a good opportunity for people who want to see if this is a subject they'd like to investigate further.

Paul Caunce
Learner on Time Management Strategies for Project Management

The course really helped me take a step back from my mentoring programme and see that it needs a lot more structure and focus if it is to succeed. I’ve been creating a project report with a Gantt chart to show current progress and future progress needed, and I’ve been looking at risk management and how we will measure success too.

Emma Sear
Learner on Business Fundamentals: Project Management

The benefits of taking project management courses online with FutureLearn

Learn flexibly online, for free, around the world

Develop valuable skills with a short, online project mangement course wherever you are. Start learning for free, on desktop, tablet or mobile.

Upgrade or buy Unlimited for extra benefits

Upgrade your course for ongoing access to the course content, tests, and the chance to gain a Certificate of Achievement. Buy Unlimited for access to hundreds of short courses in a year and the ability to keep access to courses you gain a certificate on.

Meet project management experts

Learn with experts from top international universities and business schools. Network with project managers all over the world.