Four stats you should know about project management and engineering in South Africa

17th April 2015 By: Creamer Media Reporter

Four stats you should know about project management and engineering in South Africa

Today’s organisations execute projects within increasingly complex environments – particularly in the engineering sector. The ability to successfully execute these projects is what drives the realisation of successful projects and, ultimately, the achievement of business objectives.

As such, the demand for skilled project managers in South Africa is on the rise. Which is why the University of Cape Town (UCT) is expanding its career-focused project management offerings and making these educational programmes available online.

Four stats you should know about project management and engineering in South Africa are:

1. The average yearly salary for qualified project managers in the engineering sector is R503 554.
And when an education in project management is backed up by a few years’ experience that figure gets closer to R700 000 a year.

2. Males make up 87% of the engineering industry’s project managers.
But, with over 15.7-million project managers predicted to enter the global workforce by 2020 and project management certification fast becoming broadly accessible online and part-time, South Africa's gender imbalance is sure to balance over the next few years.

3. The top three reasons for project failures cited by surveyed construction managers are missed milestones and deadlines (75%), exceeded budgets (55%) and a team's inability to meet project requirements (37%).

4. The South African Medium-Term Expenditure Framework has set aside R845-billion for public sector infrastructure projects. 
This infrastructure boom has significantly increased the number of project managers needed across a variety of sectors, as the effective management of time and resources becomes more and more vital to the success of these projects.

Organisations that execute projects successfully employ effective project management practices as a tool to achieve strategic business goals. Given the strategic impact that projects have on a business, organisations in the engineering sector must follow effective project management processes to measure progress and risks, and ensure that complex projects can be delivered successfully, on time and within budget.

Are you ready to prove yourself in a projectised world? The time to advance a lucrative career with this skill set is now. UCT and GetSmarter offer a range of project management projects, accessible from anywhere in South Africa, part-time and online:

The online UCT Advanced Diploma in Business Project Management, which was launched last year, is focused on the execution of projects in business and was so popular, the university elected to run another presentation in June this year – the first time UCT has ever presented a mid-year postgraduate programme. Sound like it’s for you? Download a programme information pack to learn more.