Certification launched successfully

27th May 2022 By: Tracy Hancock - Creamer Media Contributing Editor

Certification launched successfully

FOCUSED APPROACH PMI held workshops for six months with stakeholders to create a construction-specific certification that did not replicate, but rather complemented, the existing qualifications available to the market

Professional project management association Project Management Institute (PMI) has introduced its first industry-specific solution tailored for construction professionals in the African market.

Launched locally early this year, the Construction Professional in Built Environment Projects certification was developed to help the global construction industry realise better growth, says PMI Africa business development lead George Asamani.

“Over the past 20 years, the global construction industry has grown by only about 1% year- on-year. “We spent a lot of time engaging with stakeholders, which included some of the world’s largest construction companies and educators, such as Lean Construction Institute, gathering information to understand where we could add value.”

PMI, which has more than 50 years’ experience in the project management industry, held workshops for six months, whereby it delved into the challenges and priorities of these stakeholders to create a construction-specific certification that did not replicate, but rather complemented, the existing qualifications available to the market.

Construction projects are losing millions of dollars in potential income globally through a lack of project delivery or an inability to execute projects effectively, notes Asamani.

Challenges relating to time, cost and scope creep have been identified as the causes of this wasteful expenditure, he says.

“In project management, these are the three aspects measured to determine whether a project was delivered successfully, and when you look at how successful projects were globally in terms of these metrics, the data shouts out at you.”

Notably, when PMI surveyed more than 40 000 global Project Management Professional certification holders active in the construction industry in 2020, it found that 72% of projects were delayed, 73% were over budget and 70% of construction project management professionals experience scope creep.

“When any of these metrics runs over, it has a cost implication,” says Asamani, adding that there are three skills sets that project managers must have to achieve successful project delivery.

These are technical skills, such as construction methodology and risk management; power skills, which include soft skills, such as leadership, influence and communication, which cannot be replicated by technology; and business acumen, which deals with the motivation behind the project such as the different expectations of critical stakeholders.

The new offering from PMI includes seven online learning courses that can be completed in any order, three of which provide an opportunity to earn micro-credentials upon course completion.