Future Skills, Future Work: Projecting the Future, Challenge Paper Six webinar Thursday 16 April 2020 This webinar explores some of the key issues highlighted by the Challenge Paper, including: what are the changes taking place in the world of work? What are their implications for the skills needed for success, particularly in the project profession? And how should the profession respond to meet the needs of the future? Projecting the Future is a big conversation about the future of the project profession - and the questions that we want to explore with you. Download the challenge paper series: www.apm.org.uk/projecting-the-future Get involved in the discussion • Linkedin – Association for Project Management • Twitter – @APMProjectMgmt • Facebook – Association for Project Management • Instagram – @apmprojectmgmt

1. #projectingthefuture
THE FUTURE OF WORK &
FUTURE SKILLS
#projectingthefuture APM Webinar, 16 April 2020
WELCOME
David Thomson – Head of External Affairs, APM
APM Webinar, 16 April 2020#projectingthefuture

2. #projectingthefuture
Projecting the Future:
A “Big Conversation”
§ Creating the future of the project profession – together
§ Discussion paper launched June 2019; series of Challenge Papers through
2019-2020, online discussion, events
§ Engaging the project community – APM members, corporate partners,
wider profession – and stakeholders beyond
§ Open minded approach: next steps shaped by the conversation
§ Challenge papers, case studies, blogs available at:
www.apm.org.uk/projecting-the-future and #projectingthefuture

3. #projectingthefuture
Introductions
Patrick Woodman
Projecting the Future
team
Alice Tranter
Make UK
Ian Clarkson
QA

4. #projectingthefuture
THE FUTURE OF WORK AND SKILLS
Patrick Woodman
APM Webinar, 16 April 2020
"Home Work" by Sam & Sophie Images is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

5. #projectingthefuture
1. THE CHANGING BUSINESS
ENVIRONMENT
“Ocean Waves of Yachats”, by yachatsrena. Licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

6. #projectingthefuture
The changing business environment

7. #projectingthefuture

8. #projectingthefuture
Impact: a VUCA world
Volatility Uncertainty
Ambiguity Complexity
How does
the
profession
thrive?
#projectingthefuture

9. #projectingthefuture#projectingthefuture
Impact: uncertain
environments

10. #projectingthefuture
The rise of the “project society”
§ Delivering change > business as usual = more projects
§ Rise of project-based teams and resourcing
§ More complex projects, challenging circumstances, stakeholder
expectations
§ Involving professionals of all backgrounds
§ Demand for broader leadership ‘soft’ skills – the human factor
§ Critical impact: project sector delivers £156.6bn Gross Value Added
(GVA) to the UK economy annually (APM’s Golden Thread research)
§ Project profession = the change profession

11. #projectingthefuture
2. HOW WORK IS CHANGING
"How to create a home office where you’d want to work" by H is for Home is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0

12. #projectingthefuture

13. #projectingthefuture
What do these macro trends mean
for work?
§ Globalisation and virtual teams
§ Open innovation culture
§ Diversity of workforce
§ Gig economy
§ Changing corporate culture
§ Automation and human-machine collaboration
§ Digital construction and project complexity
Source: Future of Project
Management, UCL/APM/Arup (2017)
Source: Future of Project
Management, UCL/APM/Arup
(2017)

14. #projectingthefuture
Tech & the potential impact on work

15. #projectingthefuture
Technology & project management
work
AugmentationSubstitution
Generation Transference
E.g. driverless vehicles
E.g. smart glasses in
medicine or
manufacturing
E.g. fish management E.g. self-serve checkouts

16. #projectingthefuture Source: AI will transform project management.
Are you ready? PwC (2018)
#projectingthefuture

17. #projectingthefuture
What would you
want to
automate?
How would you
use the time/
resources saved?
What skills would
you need to excel
in that activity?
Preparing for automation

18. #projectingthefuture
3. WHAT SORT OF SKILLS WILL BE MOST
NEEDED IN FUTURE?
"Engineer works with a circuit board" by This is Engineering image library is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

19. #projectingthefuture
Why skills matter
§ Critical driver of performance – organisational and nationally
– No. 1 driver of regional productivity differences (CBI) – key to ‘levelling up’
§ UK spends £44.2bn annually on skills (IFF/DfE)
§ Yet 34% of people have had no formal training in last 5 years (Nesta)
§ 54% of all employees are expected to need significant upskilling or
reskilling by 2022 (WEF)
§ Critical skills needs include leadership & management, planning and
organising (CBI/Pearson 2019)
§ Rise of high level ‘human skills’
See Projecting the Future paper for full
references

20. #projectingthefuture
Source: World Economic
Forum, The Future of Jobs
Report 2018
Key skills for the future

21. #projectingthefuture Source: EY Future Skills
EY’s top five future skills priorities

22. #projectingthefuture
4. HOW WILL WE LEARN AND DEVELOP
THE SKILLS WE NEED TO THRIVE?
"robot pencil sharpener" by tyger_lyllie is licensed under CC BY 2.0

23. #projectingthefuture
Changing How We Work and Learn
“The notion that we can go to college for four years and then spend that
knowledge for the next 30 is over. If you want to be a lifelong employee
anywhere today, you have to be a lifelong learner.
“And that means: More is now on you. And that means self-motivation to
learn and keep learning becomes the most important life skill.”
- Thomas L Friedman, New York Times, 10 May 2017

24. #projectingthefuture
Changing how we work and learn
§ Breaking the ”lockstep” between age and career stage (Gratton & Scott)
§ Away from traditional linear path of learning, work, retirement…
§ …to alternating phases of learning and working
– Lifetimes of CPD, learning and retraining
– ‘Brushing up’ is not enough
– Support for learning in the gig economy?
– Implications of the Covid-19 crisis?
§ Integrating ‘academic’, ‘vocational’ and ‘professional’ worlds of education

25. #projectingthefuture
Example: the PwC response
§ $3bn ‘New World, New Skills’ programme
§ Digital accelerator includes immersive tech training programme, digital
hub for self learning, ‘digital fitness score’ to track progress, plus face-
to-face learning days
§ Bob Moritz, PwC’s global chairman, has said:
“We will not leave you behind. I can’t guarantee you the specific job
that you have or want to have. But I can guarantee you you’re going
to have employment here.”

26. #projectingthefuture
Developing the “adaptive project
professional"
§ Growth mindset is imperative: become a ”learn-it-all”
§ New technical skills + the human factor = the “adaptive professional”
§ Influence on CPD and qualifications
§ Policy support for employer and individual commitment
§ Growing number of Chartered Project Professionals and apprentices
§ What does APM need to do to help develop adaptive project
professionals?

27. #projectingthefuture#projectingthefuture
Future work, future skills:
discussion questions
1. How is project work changing in your organisation or sector?
2. How will the skills needed by the project profession change over the next 5-10 years?
3. What skills will be needed from project professionals at different career stages?
4. How can your organisation develop project professionals fit for the future?
5. Who else needs to take action (and what?) to develop the future pipeline?
6. Are skills and learning given sufficient consideration in today’s projects? How could
projects be better used to generate learning and build skills?
7. What role should APM play in the future?
8. What else do we need to be discussing in relation to the future of work and skills?

28. #projectingthefuture#projectingthefuture
And one last question…
9. What steps will you take to prepare for the
future of work?

29. The challenge for the
project profession
• Dr Ian Clarkson
• Head of Organisational Consultancy, QA

30. The challenge for our profession
Source: APM Salary and Market Trends Survey 2020

31. The challenge for our profession
Source: APM Salary and Market Trends Survey 2020

32. The triple whammy for our profession…
“65% of children
entering primary
school today will
ultimately end up
working in
completely new job
types that don’t yet
exist”
World Economic Forum.
The Future of Jobs Report
2016
“…most people will
not suffer from
exploitation, but
from something
much worse –
irrelevance”
21 Lessons for the 21st
Century by Yuval Noah
Harari
“Young talent
today are
motivated by
different factors.
They don't value
long-term goals or
titles”
BCG's Global Chief of Staff,
Mai-Britt Poulsen,
interview with Børsen
where she addressed the
three toughest challenges
CEOs face in 2019

33. UK WORKPLACE SKILLS SHORTAGE BY 2030
5.5m
(projected)
under-skilled
workers in
project
management
by 2030
Source: The future of work: Rethinking skills to tackle the UK’s looming talent shortage, McKinsey, Nov 2019
How are we
going to fill this
skills shortage
and attract the
people into the
profession?

34. Future skills
Source: APM Salary and Market Trends Survey 2020
Anything
you think
is
missing?

35. Are you bold enough to flip it?
“…acquire talent from
unconventional sources by
focussing on the intrinsic qualities
a person has rather than which
sector those skills came from
Source: The future of work: Rethinking skills to tackle the UK’s looming talent shortage, McKinsey, Nov 2019
https://www.apm.org.uk/blog/let-s-flip-project-management-on-its-head/

36. CONTACT
• Ian Clarkson
• ian.clarkson@qa.com
• linkedin.com/in/ianclarkson

37. makeuk.org© Make UK
Alice Tranter
Labour Market & Skills Policy Advisor
Make UK
Future of digital skills

38. makeuk.org© Make UK
The need for digital skills in the 4IR
Future of digital skills
• Digital skills carry a wage differential
• Digital skills are in demand everywhere
• Specific digital skills may help workers avoid the risk of
automation
• Specific digital skills promote career progression
• Digital skills policy should be driven locally
• Digital skills will change over time. Policy should be shaped
to anticipate this dynamism.

39. makeuk.org© Make UK
How can we shape the future?
A skills policy must be:
• Dynamic
• continually re-evaluating the skills which are in demand and aim to train workers in the
skills of the future
• ensuring that they have the skills needed for success today.
• This approach allows employers to build and shape their internal workforce
in response to changing market and business needs.
• Skills are grouped for ease of analysis of broader talent requirements;
structuring and organising the skill-level information so it can be mapped to
learning and training objectives in education.
Future of digital skills

40. #projectingthefuture#projectingthefuture
Discussion questions
1. How is project work changing in your organisation or sector?
2. How will the skills needed by the project profession change over the next 5-10 years?
3. What skills will be needed from project professionals at different career stages?
4. How can your organisation develop project professionals fit for the future?
5. Who else needs to take action (and what?) to develop the future pipeline?
6. Are skills and learning given sufficient consideration in today’s projects? How could
projects be better used to generate learning and build skills?
7. What role should APM play in the future?
8. What else do we need to be discussing in relation to the future of work and skills?
9. What steps will you take to prepare for the future of work?

41. #projectingthefuture
Join the conversation
§ Read and share the discussion paper and 6 Challenge papers
§ Share your views – LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter
– Twitter.com/APMProjectMgmt and #projectingthefuture
– LinkedIn: follow Association for Project Management, join APM group
§ Email ptf@apm.org.uk
§ Share your case studies and examples of innovative practice
www.apm.org.uk/projecting-the-future