Experts Advocate Project Management Skills Acquisition

Stakeholders in the project management industry across the continent have called on young Africans to acquire project management skills to complement their university degrees.

This was made in a statement signed by the Managing Director, PMI sub-Saharan Africa, George Asamani, and Senior Lecturer, Project Management, UNISA. Dr Sanele Nhlabatsi.

According to the statement, “The first is scale. Africa is home to the world’s youngest and fastest-growing population, with more than 400 million people aged 15–35, and is expected to have the world’s largest workforce by 2040. Yet tertiary enrolment remains around nine per cent, far below the global average of 38 per cent. Despite growth in university enrolment, higher education capacity is still struggling to keep pace with demographic demand, with some estimates suggesting capacity would need to expand nearly twelvefold by 2035.”

Nhlabatsi added: “The second crisis is a crisis of expectation. It is not difficult to see why many African families place such a high premium on university education. A degree has long been associated with a life-changing opportunity and a pathway to better job prospects, higher income, and social mobility. This belief has quietly become a burden African youth carry, because when university becomes the only door to success, young people who don’t get in don’t just lose a place; they feel as though they have lost a future.”

Asamani said: “Africa absolutely needs strong universities, and we must continue investing in them. But we must also confront a hard truth: when access remains limited, a single-pathway mindset amplifies pressure, anxiety, and a sense of failure among young people who are simply navigating a persistently high-demand, limited-supply system that has become increasingly competitive.”