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Not enough engineers for SA's trillion rand infrastructure plans

According to Moneyweb, a desperate lack of skills in South Africa may impede the government's ambitious, trillion-rand infrastructure plans for the next decade. 74% of local construction companies are struggling to fill engineering posts, says executive search firm Landelahni Business Leaders Amrop SA in its 2012 Infrastructure Sector Research Survey. SA is simply not producing enough engineers, artisans and technicians to bring about the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) public sector infrastructure projects.

Of 511 564 enrolments in engineering disciplines from 1998 to 2010, only 70 475 graduated. The Engineering Council of SA (Ecsa) reports that SA has one engineer per 3 166 of the population, well behind Brazil (227), the UK (311), Australia (455) and Chile (681), There were only 11 778 artisans (up from 3 222 in 2006) and 14 700 professional engineers in 2010, Ecsa says.

Government and Ecsa seek to address the problem through various artisan development programmes, but Landelahni CEO Sandra Burmeister believes the initiatives are severely hampered by the low school maths and science pass rates and the low graduation rate of engineering students, Moneyweb reports.

Read the full article on www.moneyweb.co.za.

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