Showcasing the need for project management skills in the UK
The recent announcement of round two of the Government’s flagship Levelling Up Fund has placed the spotlight on project skills. The £4.8bn fund is intended to help deliver local projects.
But does the UK possess enough of the skills needed to deliver these projects?
The project profession makes a significant contribution to the UK economy. Association for Project Management’s (APM’s) Golden Thread report estimated approximately 2.13 million full-time equivalent workers employed in the UK project management sector, with the profession generating £156.5bn of annual Gross Value Added (GVA). This represents 7.9% of UK employment and 8.9% of UK GVA.
This is not surprising. Projects themselves are vitally important to the UK economy. The Infrastructure and Project Authority’s (IPA’s) Government Major Projects Portfolio, which focuses on ongoing Government projects, consists of 235 projects with a total whole-life cost of £678bn and £726bn of monetised benefits.
And two of the Government’s major campaign areas – net zero and levelling up – cannot be delivered without project managers, who will ensure timescales are managed and budgets are met.
But there is a problem here. The demand for project professionals is not covered by supply.
The 2021 BEIS Green Jobs Task Force report highlighted a lack of project management skills to cover likely demand. This is supported by multiple UK Parliament Committee reports.
The Select Committee on Risk Assessment and Risk Planning’s Preparing for Extreme Risks called for the Government to improve skills base in “project delivery and make more use of systems thinking and futures techniques when conducting risk assessments and developing policy.”
This tallies with the Transport Select Committee’s Major transport infrastructure projects which called on the Government to address “specific skills gaps, such as in transport engineering and project management.”
At APM we are professionalising project management, increasing the number of Chartered Project Professionals running UK projects. We work with our corporate partners, which includes most Government departments, delivering Continuing Professional Development, e-learning and training to develop project skills.
We also fund research, such as our recent Dynamic Conditions for Project Success. This report showed the common conditions behind projects that succeeded, such as interpersonal skills, team ethos and knowledge management.
But more can be done. Greater emphasis on project management skills is needed to deliver the Government’s aspirations, particularly around net zero and levelling up.
In schools and other education settings, awareness of degree apprenticeships remains relatively low. Providing information and advice on opportunities available for students considering alternative career routes could encourage more of them to consider a project management degree apprenticeship. Within business, the emergence of ‘the project economy’ is seeing organisations transition from operations to projects. Skills need to evolve to keep pace with business needs, which is why we’re advocating for more businesses to make a member of their senior leadership team accountable for their projects.
We need Government and Parliamentary support for these measures and others, to ensure there are enough skilled project professionals to deliver Government projects on scope, on time and on budget.
For more information about APM, visit apm.org.uk.
PoliticsHome Newsletters
Get the inside track on what MPs and Peers are talking about. Sign up to The House's morning email for the latest insight and reaction from Parliamentarians, policy-makers and organisations.
