On graduate transition into the job market 

The world today is more dynamic than we have ever known. The constant change, propelled by global megatrends, has redefined jobs, bending roles and accommodating new ones. Inevitably, the culture in businesses today is tilting towards not defining work by its regular features, but in terms of what needs to get done and finding the best ways to do them.

Writing in the Harvard Business Review, PMI’s former chairman, Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez, a leading expert in project management and strategy implementation, says operations created tremendous value in the 20th century and they did so through advances in efficiency and productivity. But for most of the current century, productivity growth in Western economies has been almost flat, despite the explosion of the internet, shorter product life cycles as well as exponential advances in AI and robotics.

He also observed that projects are increasingly driving both short-term performance and long-term value creation through more frequent organisational transformations, faster development of new products, quicker adoption of new technologies, amongst others. This is a global phenomenon.

As the world of work changes to a more project-based business model, businesses will need to invest in talent who can identify, plan and deliver projects successfully. The Project Economy is one in which people have the right skills and mindset to turn ideas into reality. It is where organisations deliver value through successful completion of projects, delivery of products, and alignment to value streams-both financial and societal value.

With this huge market demand in view, Nigerian universities will serve the national economy well and enable The Project Economy by producing job-ready youths who can benefit from the global demand for 25 million new project professionals by 2030. This translates to 2.3 million project managers will need to fill project management-oriented roles every year.

To successfully transition youth into The Project Economy job market, Nigeria must consider investing in building a local skills pool. This can be achieved by businesses giving opportunities to young project professionals to expand their skills, knowledge and network, as well as mentoring and training on the use of project management tools and techniques.

George Asamani, Project Management Institute