PMP - PMI: A change that will affect thousands of professionals and trainers in Spain and around the world

17/4/2026

By the end of 2026, the PMI (Project Management Institute) will amend a rule that has underpinned the project management training ecosystem for over 25 years: the 35 hours of training required to sit the PMP^® certification exam may only be provided by centres officially accredited by the PMI.

What does that actually mean?

From the fourth quarter of 2026, any candidate wishing to have their training hours recognised for the purpose of applying for PMP certification must have completed them with one of the following providers:

An Authorised Training Partner (ATP) of the PMI
A university programme accredited by the PMI Global Accreditation Centre (GAC)
A Registered Education Provider (REP) in China, which enjoys a special status

The change applies to all training courses, regardless of the format: face-to-face, live online or online. The format no longer matters; what determines the validity is who delivers the training.

A far-reaching transformation in figures:

The impact on the Spanish education landscape

Spain offers around 30 officially recognised university master’s degrees in project management and over 100 non-accredited programmes which, to a greater or lesser extent, claim to help students prepare for the PMP certification. The vast majority are not accredited as either ATP or GAC by the PMI. This means that, following the change, students on these programmes who wish for their training to count towards the PMP will need to enrol in a course at an ATP or on a GAC programme as well. A master’s degree or the current programme, on its own, will no longer be enough.

A debate that is by no means new

This change comes as no surprise to those who have been in the sector for years: the PMI had already announced in November 2019, in the letter announcing the end of the REP programme and the launch of the ATPs, its intention to move towards a model in which training and certification would be linked. What we are seeing now is the realisation of that roadmap.

This model, in which the certifying body also oversees training, is already in place for certifications such as the Scrum Alliance’s CSM (since 2001) and PeopleCert’s ITIL and PRINCE2 certifications. However, in the case of the PMP, there is a particular issue: the PMI is an organisation that operates under the ANSI/ISO 17024 standard, which requires independence between certification and training. Various members of the community have been pointing out this contradiction for years.

What should a PMP candidate be doing right now?

If you plan to take the exam before July 2026, any high-quality training remains valid today.
If your target date is after the fourth quarter of 2026, you should check that your training provider is an ATP or GAC before enrolling
Do not assume that the programme you will be attending meets the requirements; check this against the official PMI directory

And what about trainers and universities?

In light of this change, training providers whose value proposition is partly based on preparing candidates for the PMP certification have four options:

Obtain PMI ATP accreditation, at an annual cost of between $5,000 and $10,000 plus the cost of materials per student
Obtaining GAC accreditation, in the case of higher education institutions wishing to have their master’s programmes recognised directly
Establish partnership agreements with already accredited centres such as ATP or GAC, incorporating PMP® preparation into their programme through an authorised partner
Redesign your value proposition beyond PMP® certification, focusing instead on other internationally recognised standards and methodologies

At EvergreenPM, we have been working with a wide range of project management standards and methodologies for years, going beyond the PMP. We believe that rigorous training should not rely on a single accreditation model, and that professionals and organisations deserve a comprehensive view of the ecosystem.

Is your organisation or training programme assessing the impact of this change? We would be delighted to share our perspective.

Elisabet Duocatella Pla PMP® trainer since 2010 · ATP-accredited trainer

Link to the PMI post: https://www.pmi.org/certifications/project-management-pmp/new-exam

Here you can see the ATPs in your country:https://atp.pmi.org/provider-directory?country=Spain