Fang, F and Aboushhiwa, R A (2012) Strategies to address skills shortages in South African civil engineering. Proceedings of Institution of Civil Engineers: Management, Procurement and Law, 165(2), pp. 103-109. ISSN 17514312
Abstract
Civil engineers are at the heart of future development of the infrastructure, the economy and society in the developing world. Skills shortages in the civil engineering industry are a problem that many developing countries including South Africa face. This paper examines the current situation of civil engineering skills shortage in South Africa and suggests means to mitigate this shortage. It focuses on the role of the education system in civil engineering capacity building, considering short-term, medium-term and long-term strategies. It discusses problems with current equity targets and suggests setting flexible equity targets and using flexible affirmative procurement strategies as the means to build civil engineering capacity and to meet the requirement of investing on, procuring and maintaining infrastructures in South Africa. The experience gained from procuring the infrastructure for the 2010 Fifa World Cup and how it can be used to foster future engineering capacity building and the growth of South African economy are also discussed.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | developing countries; education & training; procurement |
| Index terms: | procurement strategy, capacity building, heart, civil engineer, face, strategy, society, developing country, shortages, South Africa |
| Subjects: | psychology, economic analysis, contractual arrangements, medical science and clinical practice, development economics, Geography, communities and social development, social and economic development, profession, management |
| Topics: | Roles and Professions, Stakeholder Management, Research Practice, Business Strategy, Organizational Design, Human Resources, International Construction, Procurement, Geographical Context, Health and Safety |
| Descriptive scope: | 2 PC |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here