Civil Engineering October 2022 | Vol 30 No 9

Civil Engineering October 2022 41 government are failing this industry – they are disqualifying us despite us being qualified.” Thapelo highlighted the lack of infrastructure maintenance, an unfunded infrastructure backlog, corruption and the hiring of Cuban engineers as prob- lems that affect opportunities for young engineers and the industry at large. “As a qualified civil engineer coming from a township, my heart is not at peace be- cause the roads are all in poor condition. My dream is to ask the government for a tender to fix those roads. It will be im- portant and an inspiration to the younger generation of the black community to see me coming back with success.” According to Ishana Ranchod, Chairperson of UJ Civils, knowing when applications for vacation work open and close, and knowing which companies are offering vacation work, is one of the biggest challenges, because this informa- tion is not always easily accessible or up to date. Based on her experiences helping graduates, Shilpi Jain, member of the SAICE Young Members Panel (YMP) and winner of the 2022 SAICE Young Engineer of the Year award, agrees that there are not enough openings nor many paid opportunities for vacation work. She adds that the struggling infrastructure industry has meant that there are not enough jobs for the number of graduates coming out of universities, who have no experience to sell themselves with and little knowledge of the professional world and practical skills. Vishaal Lutchman, Market Managing Director: Transport Africa at Zutari, and former CEO of SAICE, is slightly more positive about opportunities for gradu- ates. He notes that during the pandemic many companies reshaped themselves to cater for the current economic climate and rightsized their businesses. However, there has since been an upward surge in work coming to market, which has found many companies grappling with more work than they can comfortably cope with after reducing their staff numbers. He says companies are now in the process of recruiting and the market is reorganising itself, with companies seeking to poach the best candidates from other firms. The result is that more entry positions are becoming available, partly because of an increase in work, but also because junior employees are being promoted into newly vacant mid-level positions. “If it’s not already happening it will be happening soon,” he says. CURRICULUM DISCONNECT Many of the students feel that there is a disconnect between tertiary institu- tions’ curriculums and the expectations of employers. “There are certain aspects that just cannot be taught in the classroom, but there is a definite disconnection between what is being taught in university and the expectations of employers. I feel as if universities count on companies and employers to catch recent graduates up on too much,” says Ishana. Thandiwe highlights software as an example of this. “The software we are using at school for our projects is different from the ones the employers want us to know and master.” Anri adds, “Many other students have shared similar experiences; we are either not proficient enough in the software we were never taught or we have too little experience. This attitude is forcing graduate civil engineers to search for work outside the engineering industry and outside South Africa, where the former causes engineers to work at banks, cyber- security companies, or in sales divisions and the latter results in valuable skills and potential leaving the country which worsens the so-called ‘brain drain’ effect. The former also causes another problem: engineers are now taking jobs away from BA, BSc and BCom graduates.” Offering an industry perspective on the topic, Shilpi says that employers have adjusted to graduates’ skill levels and absorbed them accordingly. “In fact, the employers might not match the latest technology and digital innovation being taught in some courses, as it takes time to adopt new technology in the real world,” she adds. Shilpi says that she doesn’t blame graduates who become discouraged and seek work in other industries because they are full of energy and ideas and need to keep growing. However, this is a big concern for the industry, partly because of how much knowledge and experience will be lost if it is not passed on to the younger generation, but also because a decline in the number of engineers does not bode well for the state of the country’s infra- structure, both in terms of new develop- ment and maintenance. “If infrastructure starts failing down the line and it gets to an emergency state, we might find few trained local engineers able to solve the problems,” she says. Vishaal does not agree that there is disconnect. He argues that employers in the private sector are aware of how much students know, because they were all students themselves at one point in time. “We know that students don’t know how to apply their knowledge, and that is why we teach them how to do it when they come into the workplace. No one pays us to generate problems, only solutions, so it is important to flip the mindset,” he cautions. He adds that smaller organisations may expect graduates to hit the ground running, but larger organisations allow their graduate employees more time to get to grips with software and adapt before contributing to projects. Vishaal believes lecturers should be preparing students for what to expect and “You have to realise that once you enter the workspace you are now in competition mode. You have to work a little bit harder and smarter to secure a role.” – Vishaal Lutchman “Students need to be very persistent, because even though they might get many rejections now, they will eventually get a job. They must keep trying.” – Shilpi Jain