Engineering Skills Crisis in Southern Africa

 March 27 2009

IDC Technologies Engineering Events

Johannesburg, South Africa 3rd & 4th June 2009

We are so concerned about the ongoing skills shortage in South Africa that we are holding a conference to look at ways of addressing the issues here and putting together a "real" achievable action plan. South Africa's economy will have to create between 510 000 and 740 000 jobs a year to meet its accelerated and shared growth initiative for the SA (Asgisa) target of halving unemployment by 2014, according to Merrill Lynch. The current increasingly critical shortfall in engineering skills is making this very difficult to achieve.

There are many reasons for the skills shortage including: lack of interest in science and technology at school, poorly orientated science education at schools, new higher tech skills required in many engineering fields, emigration of skilled professionals, outsourcing of engineering activities and a significant decline in training programmes in large companies.

According to the education, science and technology minister Mosibudi Mangena, the problem of the skills shortage was rooted in the poor level of high school education. Mangena said that the country was not producing enough highly skilled scientists and engineers to keep up with growth of the economy.

Engineering training, learning and education have changed dramatically over the past decade, mainly due to the rapid technology changes which make much of what is learnt obsolete within a few years. This requires a significant commitment to provide up-to-date, ongoing training programmes. The focus of this Forum is in engineering and technical skills. There will be some discussion of management skills but these are better canvassed at other forums.

For information email Conference Coordinator Patrica on patricia@idctechnologies.co.za