The future is bright, the future is… you!

It’s time to step out of the shadows, Cinderella. For the first time ever, project management’s contribution to the UK economy has been measured – at a massive £156bn – and its future fortunes are looking golden

Project management in the UK generates around £156.5bn¹ of annual gross value added (GVA, the total output and income of project, programme and portfolio management in the economy), representing 8.9 per cent of the country’s entire GVA, according to The Golden Thread, a new report by PwC for APM. This is more than construction (£113bn GVA) and financial services (£115bn).

“Project management has for too long been cast as a ‘Cinderella’ or ‘hidden’ profession, working hard behind the scenes to ensure others’ success,” says APM’s chief executive Debbie Dore. “This report recasts the profession into the role of a ‘golden thread’ – a seam that runs through UK plc, helping to develop new services, and drive strategic change and sector-wide reform.”

Into the limelight

The research highlighted an increase in ‘projectification’² or a ‘project-led’ approach to business, with the scale and budget of projects set to rise.

“Project management is no longer a peripheral business activity, but is instead at the core of what businesses do,” says Dr Peter Hill of St Mary’s University, part of the report’s academic advisory panel. “This research also shows that project management is central to the UK economy, adding billions in value and employing millions of UK workers. Project management professionals should rightly be proud of this contribution.”

The research found that there are an estimated 2.13 million³ full-time equivalent workers employed in the UK project management profession, and that the demand for project management is likely to exceed available skills.

A third of the 438 UK organisations surveyed for the report said that skills and capability shortages were a potential barrier to the growth of the profession. Having access to enough people with the right project management skills and capabilities in the UK was a concern for 39 per cent, and financial pressures leading to severe cost containment issues was a worry for 37 per cent. Thirty-two per cent and 39 per cent of businesses respectively expect these challenges to continue in the next three years.

The Golden Thread is just the start of a process of collaboration between the project management profession and its partners and stakeholders to contribute to its future direction, says APM’s chair John McGlynn. “We encourage you to contribute to this debate,” he urges.

Read and download The Golden Thread: A study of the contribution of project management and projects to the UK’s economy and society at apm.org.uk/goldenthread

1 £156.5bn is the mid point in an estimated range of £148–165bn.

2 The term ‘projectification’ was coined to describe the increased use of projects in organisations or society (see eg Jensen, Thuesen and Geraldi (2016) for a recent thought piece on this).

3 2.13 million is the mid point in an estimated range of 1.68–2.57 million.