Reward for innovation in SA's engineering industry

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The annual showcase of projects undertaken by members of Consulting Engineering SA (Cesa) reaffirmed the contribution that this sector of the engineering profession makes to SA's infrastructure and economic ambitions.

The 2015 awards ceremony was hosted at Vodaworld in Midrand, with 600 guests attending the industry's most glamorous event.

"The awards are about celebrating excellence and showing the world what we can do," says Cesa acting CEO, Wally Mayne. "We have very good engineers in SA and the overall quality of entries into the awards is improving. When times are tough, people get more innovative and the tools available to engineers improve all the time, which is also driven to some extent by new construction regulations that put a lot of onus on the designers to design safely."

The broad scope of projects completed by the winning companies are testament to the skill and expertise resident in the country. These ranged from a multi-billion rand water reticulation project, a cutting-edge biogas installation and a world-class microbial laboratory to the redevelopment of retail space to revitalise flagging commercial interests.

Mayne says the purpose of the awards runs deeper than simply recognising excellence and showcasing the local industry's talent. This purpose is reflected in Cesa's role as a representative body for the industry tasked with promoting the highest standards of professional services and conduct, while lobbying government on issues affecting Cesa members.

"Cesa stands for integrity and quality of work," he says. "We have very strict criteria for member firms when they apply to join us. What we do is accredit them, even though we are a voluntary association, but because we have strict criteria we give them a seal of approval. There probably isn't a big infrastructure project that is not designed or planned by our members."

An important component of this role is to engage with government, at all levels, on legislation and regulations that have an impact on member firms. This includes lobbying and providing feedback on proposed legislation while also working to improve relations with various public sector bodies.

The public sector is an extremely important partner to the consulting engineering profession, providing an estimated 60% of its work.

The pressure being exerted on the industry from delayed public infrastructure projects is being manifest in consolidation when larger firms are buying up their smaller counterparts, but also in staff cutbacks through retrenchment. In the absence of local project work, though, companies have turned their attention to the rest of Africa where opportunities abound.

Mayne says this well-documented slowdown in government infrastructure projects is a concern, which is not only the result of budgetary constraints, but also a lack of engineerings skills at all levels of government.

He says Cesa can play a role to avert the backlogs due to skills constraints by partnering with government. This could be achieved through its mentorship programme, which is aimed at building the skills and experience with government partners and member firms alike.

One of the major challenges in this regard is that much of the entrenched engineering knowledge sits with mainly white males nearing retirement age. The window of opportunity for the crop of young, black consulting engineers to learn from these experienced engineers is closing rapidly.

"We have therefore have placed strong emphasis on mentoring and coaching because that is what the young graduates need. But without the pipeline of government projects, their chances of gaining valuable experience is severely hampered," he says.

Using its position as an industry representative body, Cesa has therefore implemented skills programmes that extend to the public sector, while also hosting regular meetings with counterparts in government departments and agencies to try to unblock these bottlenecks.

With the economy requiring stimulus, much of which is tied up in government's infrastructure plans, Cesa members are willing and well positioned to help set the economy on a new path to growth.

Professional services firm Aon has been a longstanding supporter of the awards.

"Cesa's strive for excellence echoes our unwavering support of professionals, particularly independent consulting engineers, in SA," says Meggyn Marot, Principal Broker for Professional Risks at Aon South Africa.

"The awards provide a platform from where we can celebrate the triumphs of the industry in addition to providing the means for the industry to successfully navigate the risks that professionals face in their daily activities."

Source: Business Day