Stakeholders in the project management industry across the continent have called on young Africans to acquire project management skills to complement their university degrees.

This was made in a statement by MD, PMI Sub-Saharan Africa, George Asamani, and Senior Lecturer, Project Management, UNISA, Dr Sanele W Nhlabatsi.

The statement said: “The first is scale. Africa is home to the world’s youngest and fastest-growing population, with more than 400 million people aged 15–35, and is expected to have the world’s largest workforce by 2040. Yet tertiary enrolment remains around 9 per cent, far below the global average of 38 per cent. Despite growth in university enrolment, higher education capacity is still struggling to keep pace with demographic demand, with some estimates suggesting capacity would need to expand nearly twelvefold by 2035.

Nhlabatsi, Senior Lecturer, Project Management, UNISA, added that: “The second crisis is a crisis of expectation. It is not difficult to see why many African families place such a high premium on university education. A degree has long been associated with a life-changing opportunity and a pathway to better job prospects, higher income, and social mobility.

“This belief has quietly become a burden African youth carry, because when university becomes the only door to success, young people who don’t get in don’t just lose a place; they feel as though they have lost a future.”

Asamani said: “Africa absolutely needs strong universities, and we must continue investing in them. But we must also confront a hard truth: when access remains limited, a single-pathway mindset amplifies pressure, anxiety, and a sense of failure among young people who are simply navigating a persistently high-demand, limited-supply system that has become increasingly competitive.

“Across the continent, there are far too many young adults competing for too few seats, and South Africa shows what that looks like in real terms: for the 2026 academic year, the public university system could only offer about 235,000 first-year places, while more than 245,000 candidates obtained bachelor-level passes in the 2025 National Senior Certificate examinations. That gap shut the door of the future on at least 10,000 young people.”

The situation at South African private universities is even more acute, with more than 100,000 applications competing for fewer than 10,000 coveted spots. This is before accounting for the structural and socio-economic challenges of affordability, limited student accommodation, and other barriers to access.

According to Nhlabatsi, “Societal pressure has resulted in generations of young people believing that university admission is the primary proof of potential and that anything else is second best. This belief has sustained and continues to fuel the growing appeal for higher education. That narrative is deeply out of step with where the global economy is heading.

“Today, the world is being shaped by volatility, rapid technological change, geopolitical, and geo-economic uncertainty. The future demands flexibility, particularly as advances in AI continue to reshape the nature of work. Traditional knowledge-based careers are giving way to a skills-based economy, where individuals increasingly apply their expertise across multiple projects and dynamic work environments rather than remaining in fixed, long-term roles, stated Asamani.

Recommending project management as an alternative, MD, PMI Sub-Saharan Africa said, “In project management, for example, young people can build a career through certifications straight out of high school. They can begin with the foundational Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM) as an early-career professional certification. The certification can open doors to employability or entrepreneurial opportunities.”