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SAICE HOME PAGE / SAICE PUBLICATIONS & PROMOTIONAL ITEMS Numbers & Needs By Allyson Lawless A wake up call to address the capacity crisis in SA civil engineering
The nation’s economy and the quality of life of its citizens depend heavily on the supply and efficient operation of infrastructure. Yet the civil engineering industry faces unprecedented challenges in attracting, recruiting and retaining the staff needed to design, manage and deliver this infrastructure. Allyson’s book presents statistics and bottlenecks identified from 24 months of detailed research. It seeks to make practical recommendations in terms of educa-tion, learnerships, training, coaching and mentoring, as well as suggesting how to attract and retain professionals to develop sufficient civil engineering capacity to unblock bottlenecks. This is an from her ground-breaking report DECLINING NUMBERS There has been a slow decline in the number of civil engineering professionals (engineers, technologists and technicians) since the infrastructure development heydays of the sixties and seventies. Factors such as reduced industry demand, reduced numbers of graduations, emigration, and low rewards have meant that personnel have left the market at a higher rate than those entering through tertiary institutions and immigration. ‘Scarce skills’ and ‘skills gaps’ are the current buzz words while the country grapples with capacity issues. The research indicates that many fundamental activities relating to the attraction, education and training of professionals are no longer in place or are inade-quate. No long-term capacity planning has been carried out. Unless the standard of education and training from kindergarten to retirement is adequate, competence in engineering and decision-making can never be achieved or maintained. Sev-eral aspects require attention, from English and mathematics in schools all the way through to tertiary education, graduate training, working conditions and continuing professional devel-opment. THE STATUS QUO Demand Civil professionals are employed in many sectors (see figure 1). All sectors reported staff shortages, particularly of experienced mid-career professionals who are required to exe-cute major projects and transfer knowledge to junior staff. The private sector The consulting sector reports that the current workload and continual reduction in staff has meant that capacity utilisation is now over 90 % on average and in excess of 100 % in many practices. Over 80 % of the consulting practices were seeking experienced engi-neers. In terms of equity goals, all were searching for black engineers, while 50 % were also looking for technicians and technologists. The public sector Shortages in all tiers of government are even more acute. Local government has been particularly hard hit as a result of a number of factors including budget constraints, restructuring, increased bureaucracy and pursuing equity targets. A census of all local and district municipalities and metros yielded the following statistics:
The vacancies that were identified mean that civil engineers, technologists and technicians are required in local government. "At civil engineers, technologists and technicians required in local government alone" Shortages in provincial and central government are no less acute. Provincial structures reported posts that have been vacant for seven years and more. Parastatals also reported significant vacancies. Transnet is particularly concerned about its capacity to deliver the new and upgraded infrastructure that is required. The total num-ber of technical staff currently employed by Spoornet is less than half the number that was employed on the construction of the Witbank-Richards Bay Coal Line alone. Growth and capacity Given that R200 billion or more is to be spent on infrastructure in the next five to seven years, the view is that the civil engineering industry is entering a long-term growth phase. This growth will continue beyond 2010 because an expansion of infrastructure, upgrading of basic services and maintenance of the much extended network will be required. However, if appropriate interventions are not made now, the projected growth will not be achieved and, worse still, continued vacancies in local government will mean that existing infrastructure will be rendered worthless. Drivers The current drivers on the demand side are Gautrain; the Soccer World Cup of 2010; the Eskom and Transnet expansions; the huge challenges of NEPAD and the MDG and private sector developments. In total South Africa will need between 3 000 and 6 000 additional civil engineers, tech-nologist and technicians, depending on whether projects are to run concurrently. "Between 3 000 and 6 000 additional civil engineering professionals will be needed in the next few years" Supply Around 15 000 civil engineering professionals are currently practising in South Africa. The profiles show three major trends, but the most important is probably the age distribution. The current profile shows a large group of experienced engineers in their late forties and older. This presents many problems, inter alia that there are insufficient mid-career staff to carry out production work and that a large percentage will be retiring in the next ten years, further reducing capacity in the industry. The age profile problem is not unique to South Africa. However, elsewhere in the world re-tirement ages are being raised to retain the expertise, while increasing numbers of young people are being trained. By contrast, in South Africa this expert group is being retired ear-ly equity targets. THE CHALLENGES Bottlenecks – capacity supply chain Actions urgently need to be taken to ensure an adequate flow of entrants into the industry. Unfortunately there are bottlenecks at every step of the way.
At least 6 000 educated and trained staff who have graduated since 1963 have been lost to the industry. A large percentage have emigrated, and the balance have taken early retire-ment, or moved into other, more lucrative sectors. "Six thousand professionals lost to the industry through emigration, earlier retire-ment, or better prospects" The construction industry employs some 400 000 people. In local government and water boards a further 125 000 or so are involved in civil engineering infrastructure. The ratio of civil engineers and technologists to the workforce is therefore roughly 1:60. For every civil engineer or technologist who leaves the industry, ultimately 60 jobs are lost. Government has identified job creation in the construction industry as one of the saviours of the economy. But as long as the bleeding of civil engineering skills is allowed to con-tinue, jobs will be lost. The opposite is also true. Increasing the number of engineers and technologists will support the creation of more jobs. Bottlenecks – infrastructure delivery Although government has published many ambitious development plans and has assigned funds accordingly, they are not being spent. Infrastructure development is not taking place at the required rate as massive and ongoing restructuring within state organs, complex and extensive legislation and a lack of capacity give rise to bottlenecks that hamper these de-velopments. Bottlenecks - Black Economic Empowerment The need to create opportunities for previously disadvantaged individuals (PDIs) has been ad-dressed by affirmative procurement. This gave rise to fronting and little broad-based empow-erment. Numbers required Civil engineering graduations in the past closely tracked civil spending. Since civil spending is on the increase once more, it is essential that there should be a commensurate increase in the number of graduates. Fur-ther, to compensate for the disproportionate number of retirements expected to take place in the next 5–10 years, additional graduates are required. MAIN CONCLUSIONS
It was distressing to note that all the problems outlined have been raised over and over again, over many years, but little attention has been paid to the millions of rands worth of reports that are simply gathering dust. It is encouraging to observe a new-found interest and will by leadership at the highest levels to address these issues. What will happen if the interventions are not made and the status quo is perpetuated into the future?
ACTION REQUIRED The much-debated skills shortage in terms of civil engineering professionals is real and requires immediate action! To succeed will require a collective effort involving political will and the cooperation of all tiers of government, the private sector, academic institutions and the civil engineering workforce. "A collective effort and immediate action required" The report concludes with a logframe setting out the way forward and the actions required from all stakeholders. Use the order form below to secure your copy/copies of the detailed report NOW. This is a must-read for everybody in the industry! SPECIAL OFFER TO SAICE MEMBERS!
Contact Angelene on Tel: 011 805 5947, Fax: 011 805 5971 OR [email protected] for more information. e-Mail us |
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