African varsities urged to adopt digitalisation

A global non-profit membership association, Project Management Institute (PMI), has called for a change in the educational system in Africa if the continent is to excel in The Project Economy.

The association said the delivery of focused and practical education was vital as African universities faced challenges on the content and delivery of education in a digital world, and that transforming education would require a partnership to meet the future tide of demand for skills and leadership.

The Business Development Leader for Africa at PMI, George Asamani, said, “As Africa gets increasingly swept into the Tsunami of global digital transformation, it is facing a reality in which technology is accelerating faster than organisations and people. Traditional work patterns are falling away, and an economy driven by projects is ascending, shocking many people with the accelerated pace of change. As these changes are taking place, Africa is facing a future in which it is expected that the continent will produce some 30 million graduates a year by 2050.”

While commending the UN’s 2022 International Day of Education theme, Asamani noted that education, its delivery, and effectiveness, will become focal points.

He said, “One of the areas that COVID-19 heavily impacted and one that is likely to carry long-term consequences is access to education and the enhancement of skills, where the focus is on developing professionals who can deliver complex projects in an increasingly distributed environment. Furthermore, it has also been the dominant force in creating a new work ecosystem in which project management and power skills have become vital.

“The emphasis, as identified by McKinsey and other global authorities, is that four out of five companies surveyed are looking for people who are leaders, critical thinkers and decision-makers, and value continuous learning. These are the skills espoused by PMI and valuable for those preparing themselves for the competitive workplace.”

He added that the PMI response included offering free curricula and resources to universities designed on a “faculty by faculty” basis geared to meeting Global Accreditation (GAC) standards, and that the second leg of their academic resource was a research funding project that offered $50,000 to selected recipients.

He revealed that the projects were already underway with Mount Kenya University in Kenya and the University of Pretoria in South Africa where PMI global professional volunteers from the US, Mexico, India, Nigeria, Senegal and South Africa were mentoring first-year BCom students.