World Youth Skills Day 2024 – APM’s Education Outreach

World Youth Skills Day, celebrated worldwide every 15 July, emphasises the need for young people to be equipped with adaptable skill sets that will prepare them for future employment in an ever-evolving world of work. This need to support younger generations in developing new skills is why the Association for Project Management (APM) has focused strongly on its education outreach programme.

The main goal of APM’s education outreach programme is to promote the project profession to young people, highlight its easily accessible nature and the great opportunities that are available within it. While entering the profession may seem challenging to some, the educational outreach team works hard to ensure that young people are aware of the ways they can join the profession.

To do this, APM’s educational outreach team and network of volunteers attend events at various colleges and universities around the UK. They speak to students and share their personal experiences in the project profession, answering questions about how to get into the line of work, offering tips and explaining how project management skills can advance careers. By engaging with young people this way, APM's education outreach programme improves the knowledge of project management as a career and fosters an aspiration in young adults to develop the skills needed to become a project or programme manager.

Over the next few years, APM’s education outreach is aiming to expand its reach to widen participation and grow the profession further. The focus of education outreach will encompass engaging with students in schools, as they are making early decisions about further education, but may not necessarily know that careers in projects exist. The goal is to get members of APM’s volunteer network talking in schools about the project profession, running workshops and explaining the opportunities and experiences that project and programme roles can offer them.

Robin Carter-Evans, Education Outreach Manager for APM (pictured), said: "At APM, we truly believe that developing skills for young people is the right thing to do. We know from our research that there are skills gaps across professions, so we believe it's important to promote the project profession as far and wide as we can.

"The skills that you develop and use as a project manager are helpful for everyone. That’s why World Youth Skills Day is important for us. It helps us to highlight the value, and the need to engage with and encourage more young people to get into the project profession."

If you are a project professional who's interested in doing work with young people in the educational outreach, or a school/university/college who are interested in talking about the profession, please get in touch with education@apm.org.uk.”