How to plug the skills gap in a world where change is constant and accelerating

UK projects are in the midst of a profound skills gap. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, project-based work has exploded thanks to a shift to remote and hybrid models, the continued rush of technology and the need to get products and services to a broader marketplace more quickly. According to the Project Management Institute, the world will need a whopping 88 million project professionals by 2027 – and 25 million more by 2030 than it currently has.

Skilling up

It’s not just about getting fresh talent through the pipeline. Many of those already in roles lack the skills required to run projects effectively today, as organisations of all kinds – from IT giants to SMEs and charities – experience change at a breakneck pace.

“Thirty years ago, professionals were generally expected to deliver business as usual,” says Professor Adam Boddison, Chief Executive of APM. “Today, the vast majority spend most of their time delivering change, whether that’s moving to an artificial intelligence [AI] world or delivering on net zero and other sustainability ambitions. Projects provide a really excellent framework to achieve what we need. But we have to respond to these demands as effectively as possible.”

Plugging the gaps

Transport for London (TfL) is an organisation that is busy professionalising its project management community. It has offered project management apprenticeships since 2014 and has also restarted its graduate scheme, with 15 new starters joining in September.

Its current focus is on project managers’ agility, moving them around the organisation to broaden their base of skills. Traditionally, project management at the organisation has often been handled in silos. Now, a new initiative seeks to bring all its project professionals together into one community, encouraging them to work on a full range of projects – from Silvertown, the new tunnel under the Thames to the £1bn Piccadilly Line upgrade, Oyster card implementation and cycle hire.

“It’s about people finding their experience through moving around,” says Michael Cooper, Director of TfL’s Programme Management Office and leader of the new initiative. “The question is how we trust our teams to get that experience, because it’s only through living and breathing it that they can learn. It’s OK to make mistakes as long as it’s safe and doesn’t waste resources. So let’s expose them to that.”

TfL is actively encouraging its project professionals to pursue APM qualifications and chartership so they can gain the pride that such recognition gives them. The organisation also recently became an APM Corporate Partner, extending its practice of liaising with other organisations, both within and beyond the transport sector, to improve the flow of project expertise.

A perception problem

Caspar Bartington, Head of Commercial Partnerships at APM, says that a key factor in plugging the skills gap is perception. “Project management labours under the sound of its own name,” says Bartington. “For lots of people, it’s still hard hats and hi-vis. But if we talk about change and transformation, and show that projects can relate to everything from sport to climate and AI, it feels more visceral and enticing.”

University-level education is being targeted. In August, Professor Boddison worked with Ian Clarkson, Practice Director in Project and Programme Management at education provider QA, to develop a project management module for the MBA at the University of Leicester School of Business. “It really adds value to look at work through a project lens,” says Clarkson. “People can apply the skills they’ve already got to a particular activity as a project. In the module, we covered things like the Project Canvas framework, breakdown structures for scoping and other techniques to improve delivery.”

Broadening the recruitment pool

APM recruiting campaigns that target school children right up to experienced career break returners are helping to resolve some key demographic issues in the project management skills picture. Many project professionals are ‘accidental project managers’. They’ve ended up in the role through sector-specific expertise and lack the broader skills required to deliver projects effectively.

Clarkson himself landed in project management accidentally, when he was asked to run a project as a young engineer at an automotive company. “An experienced guy there was managing things on the back of a beer mat,” he recalls. “I got asked to go in and run it. So I went up to him and said: ‘Hello, I’m your project manager’. He simply looked at me and said: ‘My son’s older than you.’ Knowing about risk and quality management was not going to help me in the slightest. Project management was all about people skills.”

The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2023 predicts a 15% increase in global job creation for project managers between now and 2027. It’s a matter of drawing skilled people into the project sector. And it’s about encouraging those newcomers, and everyone already here, to professionalise themselves for the changing skills required.

“From school leavers to charterships, there’s now a project management career path that allows people to come into the profession, develop and excel. We just need to make sure project management gets the kudos it deserves,” says Clarkson.

Read a longer version of this feature in the winter 2023 edition of Project journal