Before choosing facility management courses, evaluate your career situation, talk to your supervisor at work, and investigate the school or organization that provides the courses. Other considerations include issues of course cost and convenience as well as your long-range professional goals. Facility management courses are offered by a variety of organizations in many different settings, so it may be to your advantage to review several different programs before deciding to take courses from a particular school or instructor. The more research you do, the more you increase the likelihood that the courses you take will be beneficial to you and your career.
Begin your search for facility management courses by considering why you want or need to take these courses. For example, if you are hoping to achieve professional certification through a facility management industry group, you should direct your efforts toward finding courses that are approved by the certifying organization. On the other hand, if your employer wants you to take these courses, you should sit down with your supervisor to determine the need for the courses and the particular skills that your supervisor hopes you will achieve by undertaking formal education. If you are taking the courses for your own enrichment, you may have a great deal more flexibility in course selection, but it is still a good idea to identify a purpose and need for each course that you take.
Some colleges and universities offer facility management degrees and academic coursework. If your plan is to earn a degree in facility management, you may wish to stick with courses offered by accredited academic institutions. On the other hand, if you already have your degree, choosing courses offered by nonacademic schools and trade associations may be far less costly and offer more flexible scheduling. In all cases, you should verify that the course provider has a good reputation in the industry and that its courses are recognized within your profession and, if necessary, by your employer.
Once you have identified some good course providers and topics, you can start to compare the facility management courses available to you according to other factors, such as cost and course delivery method. Some programs may cost less than others, so if the quality of instruction appears to be the same, you may wish to select less expensive facility management courses or courses taught at industry conventions, which may be included in your admission fee. If you have the option of taking a course via distance learning, you may find that this option helps you save on transportation costs and time and that you won't have to take time off work to complete your coursework.
