The project profession is growing fast but needs to fill the talent shortage – APM research

Since 2019, the project profession has created an additional 190,000 UK full-time equivalent (FTE) jobs. This takes the total number to 2.32 million employees, with annual project management gross value added (GVA) growing by 19%, which is an increase of £30.3bn.

These are some of the findings of new APM research, The Golden Thread: A Study of the Contribution of Project Management and Projects in the UK Economy.

Carried out by APM, PwC Research and the Academic Advisory Group, the 2024 report picks up where its 2019 counterpart left off, providing updated data on the contribution of the project profession to the UK economy and society.

New areas of growth

Professional and business services remains the largest project management sector, while construction and IT have also experienced notable growth (the latter roughly doubling its project management GVA to £14.3bn, with 164,657 full-time employees).

This growth is bolstered by a continued optimism for the future. In the survey of 567 UK businesses, 51% predicted growth in project-based activity, and 45% predicted an increase in average project budgets (both figures being more optimistic than the 2019 study).

Creative media and fixed capital projects are predicted to be important drivers of this increase, with six in 10 organisations in these areas expecting an increase in project-based activity. There is also a similar optimism in budget expectations, with nearly half of businesses now predicting increased project budgets — a rise from a third of businesses in 2019.

This growth is mainly attributed to a wider recognition of project management’s value. Two-thirds of businesses surveyed were optimistic that an increasing appreciation of the impact of project management — as well as an increase in the number of larger and more challenging projects — will drive further growth in the profession over the next five to seven years.

Additionally, the growth of the ‘green economy’ in the UK is also predicted to be important, with 63% citing it as a positive enabler of growth.

A looming talent shortage

But with strong growth comes the challenge of supplying enough project professionals to meet demand.

“A prominent concern in this report is the looming talent shortage, as 56% of businesses anticipate difficulties in attracting new talent, posing a significant barrier to the profession's expansion. To address this, upskilling the existing workforce and empowering the next generation of project professionals is imperative,” says Professor Adam Boddison OBE, Chief Executive of APM.

This talent shortage emphasises the importance for organisations of focusing on developing project management capabilities to ensure they have the skills they need to deliver successful outcomes from projects, finds the report. This shortage might be exacerbated by project management’s relative immaturity compared to other professions, like HR, finance and marketing.

Capitalise on transferability

Professionals within these fields tend to be able to move between sectors, while project professionals require deep knowledge and experience in one sector alone. In the Golden Thread survey, four in 10 UK businesses said that limited opportunities for project professionals to move between sectors will likely act as a barrier to the growth of the profession.

More than a third of businesses surveyed also considered the accessibility of training and education in project management to be another growth barrier. This is particularly important as new technologies continue to be integrated into project processes.

Previous APM research has shown that project managers will need to ensure they are upskilled in key areas including digital skills, communication and adaptability.

Dr Andrew Schuster, one of the report’s co-authors, is a Partner at PwC Canada, a Visiting Fellow at Cranfield University and a Visiting Professor at Skema Business School. He confirms that “programme and project management is present and relevant in every sector in the UK economy."

He encourages project professionals to make the most of their transferable skills.

“Here’s an opportunity to take your project skills and apply them in a different sector,” he says. “If you think of programme and project management as a profession and you manage your own career, that opens up lots of doors — you can work in any industry you want and migrate into these different areas.”

Be ready to move

“Where one sector drops, another grows, so you need to be able to work in another sector,” advises Schuster. “The opportunities are broad and if you have that mindset, you can take your kit-bag and you can migrate with it,” he says.

And the opportunities will only grow. He believes that as the profession matures, it will go from being a peripheral profession to one that is more central to organisations.

“Now you see the emergence of chief transformation officers, just like you have CEOs and CFOs. There are more of those executive positions coming to the fore, and it’s very much about programme and project management as part of that,” Schuster says.

As the significance of programme and project management increases, so project management must become more professional.

“The skills, breadth, depth and type of project management knowledge needs to continue; and APM is playing a role in enabling people and creating a much more robust framework,” explains Schuster.

“It's not just about learning a couple of processes; it's about resilience, leading and about management more broadly.”

View the Golden Thread report