“The campaign aims to promote the engineering sector, from artisans through to engineers, from a grassroots level, to encouraging existing engineers to remain in the profession,” Ecsa strategic implementation and quality director Liesel Kirsten said during a function at Luthuli House, the ANC's headquarters, on Thursday.
The campaign, headed by Ecsa's Daniella Melk, aims to support the government's Joint Initiative for Priority Skills Acquisition, which identified engineering as a critical skill needed to ensure that the country's economic growth is accelerated to six per cent by 2014.
The objectives of Engenius were to unite the stakeholders that are involved in the development of engineering skills, including industry, government, the Sectoral Training Authority, in order to join forces in steering, supporting and funding the campaign.
Kirsten reported that the initiative also planned to visit high schools and colleges to promote the engineering profession, as well as to unite and support organisations that are already involved in promoting the profession.
ANCYL president Fikile Mbalula agreed that it was critical to address the skills shortage in the engineering sector, and added that the ANC YL welcomed the Engenius initiative.
“We plan to implement this campaign in line with the skills promotion that we have already been doing, and will visit as many schools as possible,” he said.
He also stressed that it was important to educate learners that the engineering profession was not only for a specific racial group, but open to all South Africans.
Ecsa linked up with the ANCYL on this project because of the contact the organisation had with the youth of the country, which included a presence at all universities.
In the planning for the Engenius campaign, Kirsten explained that nine major inhibiting factors, or blockages, were affecting the local engineering sector, and it was decided that all of these needed to be addressed.
These blockages included problems with practitioners being registered, the shortage of artisans, a lack of postgraduate training, and a low intake and throughput of engineering students.
But she stressed that Engenius would strive to alleviate these problems, while its steering committee would constantly monitor progress by collecting and analysing data, to ensure that progress was being made.
The campaign aims to spend in excess of R10-million over the next two years.
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