Presented by PMI

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The boom of post-pandemic growth in the tech industry made plenty of companies rich, but it was never sustainable. With earnings weakening, along with a looming recession and the ongoing battle against inflation, companies are recalibrating their focus and tightening their belts. Salaries are often the first place companies look to cut costs, so recent layoff announcements aren’t surprising.

Amidst the upheaval and uncertainty, there’s opportunity for tech workers. As companies adapt and change course, new demands for old roles are growing, new positions are being created and new skills are in high demand The talent gap is already a concern for many tech industries, with McKinsey reporting that 87% of companies are currently facing talent shortages, or expect to within a few years.

This is where upskilling comes in — a powerful way in which job seekers and employees alike can prove their value to organizations that are urgently in need of new skills and organizational transformation, and to help workers weather impending layoffs and future-proof their careers. It’s how to stay competitive, too. Despite the high-profile layoffs in the tech sector, economists report that the job market is still strong and larger than ever, though it’s growing increasingly crowded.

“In a rapidly changing world, it’s crucial that workers arm themselves with the mindset, skills, tools and customer understanding that make them powerful assets for companies in need of transformation,” says Sierra Hampton-Simmons, vice president of products at Project Management Institute (PMI). “But more importantly, upskilling is a strategic way for a worker to invest in their own growth and engagement, and take charge of their career trajectory.”

Finding the right skills building programs

To meet the demand for upskilling, the number of learning programs is growing. PMI offers resources that help individuals strategically upskill across a variety of areas, from collaborative problem-solving and spearheading positive organizational change, to deploying and scaling low-code and no-code software platforms.

“We have a highly engaged global community of practitioners, inclusive of project, program and portfolio managers from some of the world’s largest and most impactful organizations,” Hampton-Simmons says. “By constantly listening and identifying trends through their first-hand experiences, we can stay ahead of the needs of the future workforce and offer opportunities for professionals to build the most impactful skills.”

Here’s a look at some of the PMI products that can help future-proof professionals who are looking to gain a competitive edge for climbing the ladder or identifying their next opportunity.

Project Management Professional (PMP)

PMI’s 2021 Talent Gap report found the global economy needs 25 million new project professionals by 2030 as projects are key to solving future challenges.

The Project Management Professional (PMP)® certification proves a project manager’s proficiency in various project management practices, including spearheading tangible change, and driving business results. With a PMP® certification, professionals can future-proof their careers and prove their expertise and resiliency in using technical project management skills to lead change and manage through uncertainty.  

“Projects are how work gets done, thus project managers and project professionals are critical to how strategy is executed as they play a significant role in helping organizations meet objectives and deliver value now and in the future,” Hampton-Simmons says. “PMI helps project professionals upskill themselves across industries and at any stage of their careers.”

PMI Citizen Developer

Citizen developers are transforming how employees work. Low-code and no-code platforms give non-technical employees with little to no coding experience, but significant organizational knowledge, the power to solve real business problems to build dynamic apps — putting the power of innovation directly into their hands.

Companies are racing to find ways to brings new ideas to market faster or streamline internal processes but often face over-burdened IT teams and a talent shortage. By embracing citizen development in a safe, secure and scalable way, employees — both current and prospective — immediately make themselves more valuable.

The PMI Citizen Developer™ education suite provides the guiding principles of citizen development, as well as the tools and methodologies needed to efficiently create effective and scalable applications using low-code and no-code platforms.

Organizational Transformation

Take a leading role in your company’s transformation efforts, or gain a competitive edge in the job marketplace, by learning the best practices associated with managing and supporting change. With the Organizational Transformation® ecourse series, PMI has created a pathway for individuals to learn the skills needed to become transformation professionals.  

Organizational Transformation also gives businesses the tools they need to create a culture of change through educating their workforce on the best practices of managing and supporting organization-wide transformation.

PMI Wicked Problem Solving

Today’s increasingly complex problems make clear, efficient planning and decision-making a mounting challenge. PMI Wicked Problem Solving®helps businesses and individuals elevate their ability to solve problems of all sizes through making “space” to visualize the problems and collaborate on their solutions, fostering more consistent innovation. With PMI Wicked Problem Solving, you’ll learn to apply a modern operating system for creative collaboration that drives tangible actions. These actions will provide better opportunities to turn problems into solutions, opportunities into innovations, and ideas into positive outcomes.

To learn more about these all these programs and more, visit PMI.org.

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