Civil Engineering September 2021 | Vol 29 No 8

10 September 2021 Civil Engineering Educat i on and tra i n i ng THE SAICE ACADEMY The purpose of the academy S AICE’s mission is to provide for the engineering interests and needs of its members in order to facilitate sustainable quality of life together with the responsible utilisation of natural and human resources. The constant complaint from industry that there are no “expe- rienced” practitioners has therefore led SAICE to establish the SAICE Academy. The objective of the SAICE Academy is the growth and development of SAICE’s members in the promotion, for the public benefit, of the general advancement of the science and practice of civil engineering and to foster transformation in the civil engineering sector through skills and pro- fessional development. The Institution’s activities shall focus on the development and promotion of the engineering profes- sion, in particular civil engineering in terms of its objectives. SAICE has always been involved in matters relating to education and training, both at secondary school, tertiary and industry level. The aim of the SAICE Academy is to better co-ordinate these often-disjointed initiatives into a more co- hesive process, but in particular to focus on the areas where specialised training is lacking. This process started with a need to develop a brand that best defines what the SAICE Academy is all about, helping our members and the profession at large to build their long-term careers, one piece at a time. Although SAICE has always provided training in the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) space, this has usu- ally been aimed at meeting the ECSA requirements of obtaining at least one CPD point per annum. The question now is how one would develop the next gen- eration of experts and specialists in the various engineering fields, and it is here that the Academy will play a vital role. Why does SA need experts and specialists in the development of sustainable infrastructure? Both the private and public sectors experi- ence a need for skills development and mentoring as well as the further growth of professionals with the appropriate skills to support the implementation of infrastruc- ture that would support economic growth. The new skills development paradigm is based on the philosophy that skills consist of knowledge, experience and wisdom. The knowledge is necessary to know what to do. The experience is required to know how to perform the required tasks or activities. Wisdom is attained through doing the work repeatedly and assessing the different circumstances and how to do the same or similar tasks better. The professional has had so much practice performing an activity that it has become second nature and can be performed easily, i.e. the professional becomes unconsciously competent . Skills = Knowledge + Experience + Wisdom Tertiary education institutions such as universities and universities of technology provide the knowledge (in accordance with a predetermined unit standard). Traditionally, obtaining experience was the responsibility of the employer and attaining wisdom was the responsibility of the employee who gained wisdom practically through their own learning processes. The problem with this training was that university learning rarely taught the student how to apply their knowledge. In other words, it is not work-based, and the graduate is not of immediate use to the employer. Currently, work-based training (experience) is more problematic within public sector organisations, although this can also be the case in the private sector. Lack of experience is likely one of the main reasons for the lack of service delivery by many organs of state. Skills transfer and development must focus on bridging the gap between knowing what to do and knowing how to do it. The professional growth path of engineers We are all aware of the professional pipe- line as a concept. But what does it actually mean in terms of the different stages of an individual’s professional career? Figure 1 shows how a young professional should progress through their career and how their level of responsibility and role within the professional team will change over time. The critical question is: Can a profes- sional who only does one day of CPD per annum really develop into a highly skilled individual within their field? This is even more of a challenge given the almost com- plete dependence on computer software packages as design tools, which results in poor problem solving and reasoning skills compared to the past. THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN EXPERT AND SPECIALIST The role of SAICE’s technical divisions SAICE has eleven technical divisions, most of which focus on one particular dis- cipline of the civil engineering field. Each of these divisions therefore has significant technical knowledge and experience to ensure that the most appropriate devel- opmental model is designed to guarantee Growing an expert and specialist – the building blocks Friedrich Slabbert Pr Eng, FWISA, FSAICE Chair SAICE Transportation Division friedrich@sciendum.co.za TomMcKune Pr Tech Eng, HFSAICE Head of Training SAICE tom@saice.org.za