Training-course advice: describe, evaluate and prepare

Dear Sam, I'm glad you're thinking about taking the project-management course I finished in June. It runs for eight Saturday mornings and combines short lessons with group planning exercises. Each week covers a different stage, from defining a project and estimating time to tracking risks and reporting progress.

The most useful part for me was the final group exercise. We had to plan a fictional community festival, divide the work and update the plan when two suppliers became unavailable. That made the risk tools much easier to understand than they had seemed in the handbook. I also valued the tutor's feedback on our weekly schedules because she explained why some tasks needed to happen in a particular order.

Before the course starts, I'd practise using a basic spreadsheet because most of the planning templates are completed on a laptop. You don't need advanced formulas, but entering dates and sorting a table quickly will save time. Keep one morning free after each class as well; it is manageable homework, although leaving it until Friday night makes the next session stressful. Bring a real project idea so you can test each technique against something relevant to you.

Let me know if you want to look through my course timetable before you enrol. I can't give you my completed assignments, but I'd be happy to show you how the weekly topics fit together. I think you'll enjoy it, especially the practical exercises. Best wishes, Alex