The Project Leadership Certificate Course (PLC) and how to beat it.

I waited a couple of weeks to write this post. I wanted to see if the honeymoon effect would dissipate - but it hasn't. The feelings I had on the last day of the course are still present, and this is the major difference between the PLC course and other similar types of courses.

The Project Leadership Certificate course runs on 5 days and covers Project Leadership and Project Management key areas. The Project Management side is however only the tip of the iceberg. Professionalism Leadership, Governance, Risk are other knowledge areas that are gracefully imparted by the instructor Mr Tan Chee Peng.
Mr. Tan is the founder and CEO of Team SYNthesis and Business Technovise International (BTI), a strategic services firm specializing in Business / IT Strategy, Programme & Project Management (PPM) large systems and business process integration projects.He has an unmatched career in consultancy and has practiced in various countries around the world.
You can learn more on Mr. Tan on http://www.biztech-i.com/ourfounder.htm

A few days before the course I Googled 'PLC' hoping to find some learning materials I could indulge before attending it. I heard from colleagues and friends that it was going to be tough and guess what! It turned out to be very very tough indeed. Those who have attended will tell you the same story: forget your family and other commitments for those 5 days; you will be totally deprived of sleep; you will be assessed everyday and so on.
I would add to that a few days off after the course to help you recover.

Since like with everything, preparation is the key, I suggest the following preparation tips if you intend to register for the next batch which will be held in February. Start at least one month prior.

1. Firstly, start stretching your mind. How? Well look for activities that will wake your sleepy brains  up. I am a registered user on Lumosity.com and trust me that thing really works.

2. Optimize your brains for learning through sports. Simply 20 mins of jogging three times a week will boost the flow of blood inside your head, specifically to the part of the brain responsible for memory and learning. This will also help you combat the stress that you are sure to encounter during that period.

3. Go on a healthy diet and pack on with a daily multivitamin. You wouldn't want to miss the excitement by feeling all slack and sleepy or sick during the training, would you?. That would be too bad. And you need to physically fit for this, trust me.

4. Read PMBOK as much as you can! Although you or company are paying to get trained in the field, I think its wise to at least go through the pmbok guide once. Now don't come back crying if you didn't listen.

5. During the training, your coffee and lunch breaks are very scarce in terms of time allocated. Bring some snacks (healthy of course) which you can furtively pop into your mouth when your stomach is crying for hunger. I had some almonds always available, sandwiches with peanut butter and Alpen bars.

6. The venue for the course is at Maritim Hotel. So if you live more than 20 mins from it try looking for a relative nearby where you could possibly spend the night working and sleeping (if you can afford).

7. Last day I suggest you bring some warm clothes along, as well as some additional food for diner. Well, just in case - You won't know where you be sleeping

Having said these, let me tell you that you can only get better after following the PLC course! If it doesn't bring some positive changes in you, god knows what will.

Finally the course also entitles you to 45 PDUs/ 45 Contact hours which you can use to take the PMP Certification. You are awarded a certificate by the UTM if you succeed and a picture of you in the l'Express newspaper :)

All the best.