Project Management

Description 

As project management grows in scope, importance and recognition, so do the related career and credential options available to students. RIT K (A.U.K) Training and Development Institute has successfully rolled out the CAPM (Certified Associate in Project Management) and PMP (Project Management Professional) courses.

International Project Management Preparatory Training Program is based on the Project Management Body of Knowledge. The processes, tools, inputs and outputs of PMBOK will build the fundament of this training. Project Management Processes are grouped in five process groups and nine knowledge areas:

The Project Management Institute (PMI) stands as a global leader in the field of project management. It is well known that PMI certification involves a rigorous, examination-based process that represents the highest quality in professional standards. Therefore, PMI’s professional certification is universally accepted and recognized.

Objectives

During the 6 day intensive program, participants will learn and apply the practices of project management identified by PMI, in order to manage projects successfully.

Outline

The course contains these components:

Audience

This professional training benefits many individuals who deal with project coordination, project managers and business analysts, and those who wish to enter into this field of study. The developed knowledge from this training will be beneficial to you throughout your whole life.

Schedule

Successful delivery of the training requires 48 training contact hours.

Since most of the candidates are working professionals, we usually deliver all lectures on Saturday’s. This training model has been proposed in order to allow enough time for participants to study, work in groups and read thoroughly official materials.

Lectures are held on Saturday’s 09:00-16:00 at the main building of RIT K (A.U.K).

Associated Certifications

To be eligible for PMI certifications, participants must first meet specific education and experience requirements and agree to adhere to a code of professional conduct.

Certified Associate in Project Management – CAPM ® exam

If the participant a less experienced project manager looking to demonstrate their commitment to project management, improve their ability to manage larger projects and earn additional responsibility, and stand out to potential employers, the CAPM certification is right for them.

To apply for the CAPM ® exam, participant needs to have:

Project Management Professional – PMP exam

The PMP recognizes demonstrated competence in leading and directing project teams. If the participant has some experience in project management and is looking to solidify their skills, wants stand out to employers and maximize their earning potential, the PMP credential is the right choice for them.

To apply for the PMP, you need to have either:

For more information on the certifications, please visit www.pmi.org

Price: Option 1 (09:00 – 16:00) 650.00 € 

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Online Agile Project Management Courses & Certificate

For a limited time, when you purchase any course from Goodwin College’s Online Professional Development Course catalog, you’ll receive the online, self-paced course, Speak With Confidence for free! The link to access Speak with Confidence will be included in your course confirmation email that you receive 24-48 hours after registration.

These days, project management is multidimensional depending on the project, industry, and team. Drexel University’s, Goodwin College of Professional Studies offers online agile project management courses to teach the principles of Agile Project Management—an iterative, skimmed-down approach to project management for teams that must move quickly. Add this method to your project management toolbox to be even more marketable to businesses and valued within your organization.

>The following online agile project management training courses can be taken individually or in the bundle certificate package at a discounted rate:

Learn the basic methodologies, practices and key concepts of Agile and explore, through case studies, many of the common challenges of working on an Agile team.

Understand the  key concepts and principles that form the foundation of Agile project management as well as the nuances of leading and working with Agile teams.

If you already have some Agile experience, you can prepare for the Project Management Institute®'s Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP)® exam with a review of the key tools, techniques and strategies that PMI® has listed as important for Agile practitioners to understand to achieve their certification. 

Assess your readiness to take the Project Management Institute®'s Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP)® Exam with two 120-question practice tests, which cover the information in the current PMI® Agile reading list.

Test your understanding of Agile practices through 20 short case studies pulled from real-world experiences. 

Recognize and resolve many of the common integration issues that emerge when Agile and Waterfall methodologies are combined.

Agile Course Catalog

How to get rid of private mortgage insurance (PMI)?

If you made a minimal down payment  when buying your home — less than 20 percent of the purchase price, to be precise — you’re probably all too familiar with PMI, or private mortgage insurance. This surcharge, included along with the principal and interest in your monthly mortgage payments, can add hundreds if not thousands of dollars to your housing costs each year. Annoying, especially since these insurance premiums protect your lender, not you, in the event that you default.

That’s the bad news. Now the good news: This extra expense won’t last forever. Each year, your PMI is recalculated using your current loan balance, so the amount you pay will decrease as you pay down the loan.

And once you build up enough home equity, you’ll be able to eliminate PMI entirely. There are several different ways you can go about this, so it’s highly likely you’ll find one that will work for your finances.

A federal housing regulation informally called the “PMI Cancellation Act” assists homeowners trying to get rid of their PMI. The Homeowners Protection Act of 1998 — as it is officially named — confers “automatic” or “final” PMI termination at specific home equity milestones, provided your mortgage is in good standing and you haven’t missed any monthly payments.

The act dictates that your mortgage lender or servicer must automatically terminate PMI when your loan-to-value (LTV) ratio drops to 78 percent — in other words, when your mortgage balance reaches 78 percent of the purchase price of your house.

Alternatively, the servicer must cancel the PMI at the halfway point of your loan’s amortization schedule. For example, if you have a 30-year mortgage, the midpoint would be after 15 years; if you have a 15-year loan, the halfway point is 7.5 years. The PMI must stop even if your mortgage balance hasn’t yet reached 78 percent of the home’s original value. This is known as final termination.

Who this affects: Removing PMI in this way works for folks with conventional mortgages who have paid according to their original payment schedules and have reached the milestones of 22 percent equity or the halfway point in time. In both cases, the loan must be current and the borrower in good standing: no delinquent, skipped or insufficient payments.

Another way the PMI Cancellation Act benefits you is by granting you the right to remove PMI once you have paid off enough of your mortgage principal to reach 20 percent home equity; that is, once your loan balance reaches 80 percent of the home’s original value.

Who this affects: If you’re making payments as scheduled, you can find the date that you’ll get to 80 percent on your PMI disclosure form (or you can request it from your servicer). However, you need to be proactive.

You must do the following to cancel PMI:

If you have the cash to spare, put it towards extra or bigger mortgage payments — to help you hit that golden 20 percent equity figure faster.

You can prepay the principal on your loan, reducing the balance — which also helps you save on interest payments. Even $50 a month can mean a dramatic drop in your loan balance and total interest paid over the term of the loan.

To estimate the amount your mortgage balance needs to reach to be eligible for PMI cancellation, multiply your original home purchase price by 0.80.

Who this affects: Homeowners can use this method to achieve 20 percent equity more quickly. You can do so by making bigger mortgage payments, more frequent payments or by putting a lump sum towards paying down the loan. You should check with your lender as to which methods are preferable.

When mortgage rates are low, homeowners are often advised to consider refinancing. Especially in the last few years, when rates were at a historic trough of 3 percent, refinancing meant lower monthly payments and reduced interest costs. And the rise in home prices often meant a new loan could easily be below 80 percent of the home value, enabling you to eliminate PMI.

While the recent sharp climb in interest rates means it might not now be worth the effort and expense of  refinancing just to get rid of PMI, it’s still something to keep in mind if you are close to the 20-percent-equity mark. If you determine that refinancing puts you over that threshold, contact your lender after the process is complete and request cancellation of your PMI.

You can also refinance into a loan that doesn’t require PMI. One way to do this is by “piggybacking” — that is, taking out a home equity loan, line of credit or other mortgage, in addition to the new primary one; this additional loan finances your down payment, getting it to the 20 percent mark.

Another option is refinancing with a government-backed USDA or VA loan, which doesn’t carry PMI, although they do charge their own fees and have some eligibility restrictions.

Refinancing works best if your home has gained substantial value since the last time you got a mortgage. For example, if you bought your house four years ago with a 10 percent down payment, and the home’s value has risen 25 percent since then, you now owe 65 percent of what the home is worth, which is less than the 80 percent threshold for PMI. Under these circumstances, you could refinance into a new loan and no longer have to pay for PMI.

With any refinancing, you’ll want to weigh the closing costs of the transaction against your potential savings from the new loan terms — especially considering the higher cost of borrowing today — and eliminating PMI.

Who this affects: This strategy works well in neighborhoods where home values have increased significantly in recent years. If your home value has declined, refinancing could have the opposite effect — you might be required to add PMI if your home equity has dropped.

Refinancing to get rid of PMI typically doesn’t work well for new homeowners. Many loans have a “seasoning requirement” that requires you to wait at least two years before you can refinance to get rid of PMI. So if your loan is less than two years old, you can ask for a PMI-canceling refi, but you’re not guaranteed to get approval. In addition, mortgages hit some of their lowest interest rates in decades two years ago, so homeowners who locked in those low rates might be financially better served by paying PMI until they reach the 20 percent equity threshold.

In a hot real estate market, your home equity could reach 20 percent ahead of the loan payment schedule. In this case, it might be worth paying for a new appraisal. If you’ve owned the home for at least five years, and your loan balance is no more than 80 percent of the new valuation, you can ask for PMI to be canceled. If you’ve owned the home for at least two years, your remaining mortgage balance must be no greater than 75 percent.

Appraisals for a single-family home have risen in recent years. As of early 2023, you can expect to pay between $500 and $700, depending on your area. Some lenders might be willing to accept a broker price opinion instead, which can be a substantially cheaper option than a professional appraisal. On the flip side, professional appraisals are highly regulated and provide an unbiased exam.

Who this affects: Median home values have shot up by around 30 percent nationwide over the past couple of years, and borrowers who live in areas that are particularly red-hot might have seen their home values jump even higher. In fact, the value might have increased enough to bump you out of the PMI range. If this is the case, it’s time to talk with your lender about getting a new appraisal and potentially canceling your PMI requirement.

While it wouldn’t make financial sense to add onto your home just to get out of paying PMI, investments you make in your home can be a path towards ditching it. If you’ve added amenities or modernized, that might have increased the value, which could also mean more equity. Improvements like a renovated kitchen, new garage doors or windows or an extra bathroom, like these can increase your home’s value (as reflected in a new appraisal) and help you cross the 20 percent equity finish line in the process.

Who this affects: If you are close to having 20 percent equity and being eligible for PMI cancellation, making significant improvements to your home could raise the home’s value enough to meet that threshold if you pay to have your home reappraised after the work is completed.

If you pay for PMI, you should be aware of the rights conferred to you by the Homeowners Protection Act. In addition to providing the mortgage payoff benchmarks to get rid of PMI, the PMI Cancellation Act also protects you against excessive PMI charges. You have the right to get rid of PMI once you’ve built up the required amount of equity in your home.

Lenders have different rules for canceling PMI, but they are required by law to provide you with a mechanism to do so. Prior to the Homeowner Protection Act’s passage, a homeowner would have little recourse if their lender refused to release them from paying PMI, even if they had enough equity in their home that the lender would be made whole if the homeowner defaulted and the lender foreclosed and seized the home.

Private mortgage insurance protects the lender from the elevated risk presented by a borrower that made a small down payment. Once the borrower has a sufficient equity cushion, the PMI will be removed.— Greg McBride, Bankrate Chief Financial Analyst

Before you sign a mortgage with PMI, ask for a clear explanation of the PMI rules and schedule. This will enable you to accurately track your progress toward ending the PMI payment. If you feel your lender is not following the rules for eliminating PMI, you can file a complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Remember: You might be able to eliminate PMI when your home value rises or when you refinance the mortgage with at least 20 percent equity. But the onus is on you to request it.

When it comes to how to get rid of PMI, you don’t need to be overzealous. While paying PMI each month — or as a lump sum each year — is no financial joyride, be careful not to make your finances worse by hustling to get rid of PMI.

Most financial experts agree that having some liquidity, in case of emergencies, is a smart financial move. So before you tap your savings or retirement funds to reach that 20 percent equity mark, speak with a financial adviser to make sure you’re on the right track. In particular, if you bought or refinanced your home within the past few years, you probably have a favorable interest rate. Even with the added hassle of paying for PMI, pulling your money out of high-yielding or appreciating investments to pay off a low-cost mortgage might not make financial sense.

“There seems to be a philosophical aversion to PMI on the part of many buyers that is misplaced,” says Bankrate chief financial analyst Greg McBride. “As long as you’re not taking an FHA loan, you’re not married to the PMI. You can drop it once you achieve a 20 percent equity cushion, which may only be a few years away depending on home price appreciation. But do not feel the need to use every last nickel of cash to make a down payment that avoids PMI, only to leave yourself with little in the way of financial flexibility afterwards.”