Theme: “Development of a National Strategy to increase engineering graduate output”
Honourable Master of Ceremonies
Dignitaries
Representatives of the institutions, organisations, industry, companies and
other structures
Ladies and Gentlemen
It gives me great pleasure to open this conference. Today provides a platform, the first of its kind an opportunity for such a large contingent of relevant stakeholders in Engineering education and training, to engage on improving the throughput and numbers of professionals, technologists and technicians produced in Engineering as one of the identified scarce skills areas in our country.
It has been identified that there is the need to improve the throughput rate in certain engineering qualifications. It is further noted that there is the clear need for proper support mechanisms and clear systemic changes that are required in order to increase the numbers and types of engineers, engineering technologists, technicians and technical assistants in South Africa which is in sync with the labour market needs.
As part of the Minister of Higher Education and Training’s (DHET) performance agreement with the President the graduate outputs in identified areas must be improved to ensure the required numbers in occupation related fields. These areas were engineering, life and physical sciences, animal and human health, and initial teacher education. The required graduate output targets was identified as part of the enrolment planning process for 2011/12 to 2013/14 which included engagements between the DHET and relevant institutions of higher learning.
More specifically, this required the target to increase the production of engineering graduates to 15 000 by 2014. This cycle is up until 2013/14 therefore we now have the opportunity to revisit our approach towards determining the realistic expansion of engineering graduates needed in specific specialisation areas.
Studies have indicated that South Africa lags far behind in the number of engineers per population in comparison to countries such as the United Kingdom, Australia and Chile, even though we may be better off in comparison with our African counterparts. A study indicated that we have 1 engineer per 3 100 persons in the population.
We need to increase the success rates of students already enrolled in engineering programmes, as well as develop clear, achievable action plans to attract more students to this field of study, identifying them at an earlier age, providing school and higher learning support and maximise labour market absorption and retention of engineering graduates within identified fields of specialistion.
This is a particularly difficult task if one keeps in mind that a country such as South Africa characterised by poor schooling conditions, where the current participation rate of people between the ages of 20 and 24 in post-school education is only 19%. This is exacerbated by poor retention, early dropouts, poor success rates and lower than average graduation rates.
To address the challenges facing the training of in engineering sciences, Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA) conducted a research study in which it identified seven levers of change specifically aimed at increasing the throughput rate within the engineering profession. As I have alluded to earlier, there is firstly the need to improve the talent pipeline from schools which feed into higher education. Together with this is the need for improved students’ selection procedures.
As further measures of improving efficiency, there needs to be integrated and timeous student support, and a flexible curriculum which includes adequate methods of improving student success. There also needs to be an emphasis on improved methods of teaching and learning, addressing staffing inadequacies, addressing the issue of funding and consider progression and articulation routes.
Recommendations made in the report relate specifically to the 7 levers of change. Proper engagement and a way forward requires that adequate interventions are selected and implemented by the various stakeholders and role players. This engagement is therefore seen as a collective effort between all relevant role-players attending today.
There are a number of additional hurdles that needs to be overcome before engineering science graduates can reach the target of 15 000 per annum, for example the point at which the eight faculties offering engineering programmes in South African universities will become sustainable – which is proposed only by 2020 given engineering science graduates increasing by the require factor of 1.78 per annum.
A Capstone Proposal from the 8 universities received by the Minster’s offices, for increasing engineering science graduates from 2013 to 2020, takes into account the required resources including expertise and infrastructure, in order for South African universities to achieve required targets.
It is generally agreed that increased engineering graduates should be pursued by using the expertise at existing well-functioning engineering faculties and adding the necessary resources. Future long term growth will inevitably require establishing more faculties of engineering countrywide and probably clearer differentiation in engineering specialisations offered at each institution.
During our discussions today there are a number of critical issues to discuss. We firstly have to carefully consider our current basic education and school system, in particular how exactly it is impacting on the availability of matriculants with the appropriate achievements and subject choices to embark on studies in engineering sciences. The Minister often warns against lamenting the quality of matric graduates and emphasise that we cannot replace our matriculants.
We have to deal with their shortcomings through continuous development and support at our institutions of higher learning. Therefore this summit will also address appropriate formats and approaches to student support in engineering programmes, the development of flexible and relevant curricula most notably in undergraduate programmes, aggressive development and improvement of teaching and learning skills and techniques appropriate to engineering, staffing, and the needed funding and infrastructure requirements.
The pivotal role played by ECSA in developing and increasing engineering professionals in South Africa is commended. It is one of South Africa’s more pro-active professional bodies that have taken a clear lead in developing its mandated industry and the human resources therein. The way forward is still long and I cannot overemphasise the pertinent roles of Sector Education and Training Authority (SETAs) and industry in providing the necessary support to engineering institutions and graduates through partnerships, work placement, learnerships, retention and further development of engineering specialists in South Africa. To this extent the role of our Further Education and Training (FET) colleges should also not be underestimated.
The projected Human Resources Budget for the eight engineering faculties at South African Universities as indicated in the Capstone proposal, including salaries and operational expenses from 2012 to 2020 is projected to approach R2.6 Billion of which it projects growth in engineering science bursaries to approach R900 million by 2020. Government alone cannot foot the bill. The DHET is heeding the call to reconsider the funding model pertaining to engineering faculties and recognise that these faculties are currently underfunded and largely supported by cross-subsidisation by other faculties – it is therefore one of the aspects that the committee responsible for the review of the funding framework is considering.
For the 2012/13 to 2014/15 Infrastructure and efficiency cycle the total of funding requested from universities for engineering infrastructure amounted to R 1.314 Billion. The DHET could unfortunately only provide one third of the requested allocation, at marginally less than R510 million, while universities contributed R186 million. For the 2011/ 2012 cycle a total of R349 million was requested, while the DHET had R316 million available. This resulted in a ratio of 1:11 of applications to government funds available, clearly indicating the extent to which engineering is being underfunded.
Each higher education institution offering engineering programmes have school outreach programmes in place and are actively marketing engineering sciences as a career path and recruiting matriculants who are reasonably strong performers in mathematics and science. Six universities have submitted foundation provision programmes in engineering sciences to the DHET for funding in the next academic year and evidence indicates that students who followed the foundation provision route often outperform their mainstream counterparts in later modules. For this reason all the faculties of engineering have substantially increased its offering of additional academic tuition to all the students in engineering sciences.
It is my sincere hope that our deliberations today will manifest into a concrete and clear action plan which adequately addresses our shortcomings in producing engineering graduates at all levels. I thank you for the large turn-out as it is indicative of the commitment that this industry has in growing its pool of professionals. I wish you all success, innovative thoughts and ideas and solid contributions to this summit.
I thank you.
Speech by the Minister of Higher Education and Training, Dr. BE Nzimande at the Engineering Training Summit, Premier Hotel, OR Tambo
