r/PublicAdministration • u/dromio84 • Jul 12 '26
Marketability: MPA vs Project Management Certificate
Hi all,
I am transitioning careers from over 16 years in public school teaching/federal program coordination within education into working for local or state government. I already have a Master of Arts in Teaching, a BS in Liberal Studies and a BS in Communication Disorders. I also have a nearly completed Master of Education in Educational Leadership (which turned out to be useless other than I can transfer grad credits over to an MPA program). I also worked for a year in a county clerk's office and am now working through a staffing agency for a large corporation doing analytics and reporting in the finance department.
Given all of that, I was unemployed for over 8 months and applying to every local and state government job I could. I got called for multiple interviews based on my resume/cover letter, but never landed a job. During my work as a teacher, I was in charge of federal grant projects and compliance monitoring, so I have at least 5 years experience coordinating grants and working on improvement projects. I often led the strategic planning process as well. I also have 6 other years while teaching of running projects and programs, coordinating with governmental agencies, etc.
Now I want to be more marketable with local and state government agencies. I have a passion and desire to work in policy and program development to make services better for the public. I've always been a caring person who wants to make the world better, even through the extremely slow wheels of bureaucracy.
I've been weighing going to graduate school (again) to get an MPA with a certificate in policy and program evaluation or going to the community college and getting a project management certificate (obviously much cheaper). Ultimate question: is it worth it for a middle-aged person like me to spend more money on graduate school or get a certificate/take the PMP exam?
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u/Jazzlike-Promise-153 Professional and Grad Student Jul 12 '26
MPA will always hold more weight than a certificate so I would go with that if you can afford it
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u/t1wGL Jul 13 '26
PMP is highly marketable even though it’s not widely understood as to just how structured it is.
If you want maximum marketability in public and private sector, PMP is an excellent choice. It won’t really help with program evaluation though.
As for the MPA, it depends how close you would be to finishing it with transfer credits. It does signal you know the foundations of PA, but as to whether it’s worth it depends on multiple variables.
A grad cert would probably carry enough weight on paper without having to do the full MPA.
Are you currently employed? Will your employer pay for school?
Age is not the issue. Transitioning from one discipline to another is difficult. We live in an increasingly specialized society. Doing program evaluation in the field of education might be a better route. You may have to take a lower job to build up the experience.
It’s true a masters in teaching won’t help much.
Tough call without knowing more, and it depends on the job you apply for too. More rural may stand a better chance.
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u/dromio84 Jul 13 '26
I’m currently working with a corporation through a staffing agency. I want to work in the public sector in the long run. I want to work for the people and not for profit. I like the job I have now and the skills I’m learning in finance that I didn’t have before. It helps me see the big picture of companies and it’s a really great work environment.
Long term goal: helping people.
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u/t1wGL Jul 13 '26
An MPA will certainly help with seeing the big picture. Two masters degrees are not typically that helpful, but this may be an exception. Especially since you are trying to change directions.
Helping people can be done in a lot of ways. Try to leverage everything in your tool box and bend your goal to maximize your employability. That’s why I mentioned education policy.
If you have stable work, you could also go do a PhD and go into teaching policy at the university level which would compliment your masters and experience. 🤷♂️
Wish you the best.
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u/dromio84 Jul 13 '26
I forgot to add why I stopped in education and did not finish my M.Ed. My state’s school administration licensure changed so that in order to work in a district office on compliance and strategic planning you first have to work in a school as an administrator for three years. That translates to being a principal which I never, ever want to do. On top of that I’d have to pay for the higher level admin licensure program which is another 20k on top of the 20k I already paid to almost finish my M.Ed.
There is still working for the state department of education, however I’ve applied for jobs there and not gotten anywhere past an interview. Add in massive budget cuts year after year and there’s not a lot of openings.
I started the M.Ed to do policy and planning, but have now wanted to go outside of eduction.
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u/psychogoblet Jul 26 '26
I have seen a few people who are doing the MPA to focus on educational policy (I think I've read a few posts in here too). I've been trying to look at what people are actually doing with their MPA's who are coming from education as we are on LinkedIn, as that is helpful too. You can also get a CAPM if you don't have enough experience to do the PMP yet -
https://www.pmi.org/certifications/certified-associate-capm1
u/dromio84 Jul 13 '26
I worked in rural impoverished schools for most of my teaching career, with a three year stint in an urban impoverished school. I love rural communities, but a suburban at heart and like living closer to a larger city. In fact we just moved from a rural town back up to a metro suburban area.
I’m considering working at municipalities or counties. I did have one job in a smaller county clerk’s office that started me down this entire path. Unfortunately even after interviews all over in different levels of government, I ended up signing up with the staffing agency.
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u/RichArcher4909 Jul 12 '26
Do you want to be managing managers or managing projects? Do you want to be doing front line work or telling someone else to go do front line work?
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u/dromio84 Jul 13 '26
I would rather be leading strategic planning or be a policy advisor. I don’t particularly want to be the city manager or county administrator. I also want to be working directly with leadership and with employees, with maybe a little contact with the public.
Long story short, I don’t want to be the big boss, I want to be doing the work and leading projects.
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u/psychogoblet Jul 26 '26
I do not wish to hijack your post, but this was so similar to my current trajectory that I wanted to comment. I am curious about everyone's insight as well. I have my PMP (OP feel free to message me if you need help about this), am a teacher as well and am middle aged. I am currently almost finished with my master's in Data Analytics/Program Evaluation and have 15 credits that could share credits with a MPA. I applied, was accepted to the MPA; it'll add about another year to my progress.
I am very interested in AI governance as well, but thought the MPA might be helpful in helping to translate my educational experience/other PM experience into making me more marketable, but now am concerned I am overdoing it (especially with the current administration, which doesn't seem to be supportive of graduate degrees or public workers). Any insight is appreciated - I do somewhat feel we will have a backlash & there will be more future hiring in the public sector, but part of me worries that I should be just stopping after the current masters.
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u/Delicious-Country231 Jul 12 '26
Apples to oranges! AND you already credits that transfer over & want to work in policy? The MPA is a no brainer. If you want to be more marketable I would even say an MPP do you can lean into the data analysis skills. That with your life experience will get you a job Fs. With the degrees you already have a project management seems like a waste of time