Construction is a critical player in the U.S. economy. Construction contributed $884 billion to the nation's GDP in 2019, employing more than 7.5 million people in the United States. Despite its prominent role in the national economy, the construction industry still deals with long-standing problems. Construction project managers (CPMs) are critical to resolving many of these problems. Identifying training gaps in construction project management requires a deep awareness of the necessary competencies. The authors identified 21 skills required for CPMs and revealed essential knowledge areas and personality characteristics critical to each skill. A survey including 672 ranking questions was developed to explore the global construction academics' perception of the importance of each knowledge area/personality characteristic to each skill. Each participant ranked the importance of two universal knowledge areas, two domain-specific knowledge areas, and three personality characteristics to three skills. The data was collected from 2,016 construction academics worldwide. This paper focuses on the ability to create written and oral communications appropriate to the construction discipline. The findings can assist the construction academia in directing their efforts toward key competency development areas, and scaffolding courses and planning curricula to the real needs of the worldwide workforce. [For the full proceedings, see ED656038.]