Protocol and welcome
Programme Director
Minister of Higher Education and Training
Director-General and senior management of DPW
Representatives of entities and professional associations, and the Construction SETA
Invited speakers and guests
Most importantly, the young professionals present
Ladies and gentlemen
Welcome and thank you for inviting me to share some thoughts with you today.
Thanks to the Human Capital Investment Unit (part of HR in Corporate Services) for organising this event on an annual basis since 2010.
Annually, the department hosts the Young Professionals Seminar for departmental candidates registered with built environment statutory councils. The seminar is attended by professionals from the department, consulting firms, captains of the industry as well as academia.
The Seminar
- exposes Young Professionals to new conversations, trends and perspectives within the built environment
- promotes strengthened relations and nurturing of candidates by various councils
- promotes interaction and sharing of best practice
- allows candidates an opportunity to reflect on their own performance and progress, and
- provides an opportunity for exchanging and discussing new ideas, innovations and developments within the built environment professions.
Some areas considered in this 2013 seminar include:
- future scenarios and projections for the construction industry, and
- addressing infrastructure deficiencies, backlogs and disparities for balanced sustainable development and service delivery.
Let me also complement the organisers of the seminar on the variety and scope of today’s programme, covering:
- issues of infrastructure development
- reviewing the work of the DPW Projects and Professional Services branch
- sustainable infrastructure development and the greening of buildings
- urban planning
- innovative building construction methods and materials. We already have some experience in this area – as DPW - working with Agreement South Africa and IDT – to build pilot schools in Eastern Cape and North West.
The Young Professionals Programme
The Young Professionals Programme is an intervention to strengthen the skills pipeline strategy to support the registration of built environment professionals through providing mentorship and structured training.
The Programme provides support to candidates in the following fields:
- Engineering (Structural, Civil, Electrical and Mechanical)
- Quantity Surveying
- Construction Project Management
- Architectural Services
- Town Planning
- Property Valuation
- Interior Design
The objectives and aspirations of the Programme include the following:
- To address the shortage of critical and scarce skills within the built environment and to capacitate the department
- To transform the built environment by accelerating professional registration of previously disadvantaged groups.
This is an important consideration, colleagues. Blacks still only constitute about 25% of registered professionals in the built environment professions. One of the problems is that even when young black students graduate in built environment disciplines from tertiary institutions they face another barrier in getting a placement where they can register as candidates for professional registration. The DPW is looking closely at this challenge – working with our entities – particularly the CBE (Council for the Built Environment) and the CIDB (Construction Industry Development Board).
In this connection I should mention that next week the CIDB will be launching new national standards for construction development which include model clauses for infrastructure contracts to include more and better training opportunities for technicians, artisans and professionals in the built environment.
Other objectives of the Young Professionals Programme include:
- To ensure on-going training and development before and after candidacy registration
- To maximise exposure of candidates to national and international projects and exchange opportunities;
- To place candidates in selected centres of occupational development and professional firms for identified skills; and
- To grow skills appropriate for DPW’s needs.
Mentorship
Young Professionals are allocated qualified professionals to serve as mentors who provide coaching, guidance, signing off of council reports to the various statutory councils.
The department use retired mentors, internal registered professionals as well as professionals within construction and consulting companies. Currently there are five (5) retired mentors, two (2) in the field of Architecture and three (3) in Civil and Structural Engineering.
In addition, on a quarterly basis, HCI conducts monitoring of the Programme to track progress, register challenges and recommend solutions. The Programme started in 2007 with 74 participants in the following offices: Head Office, Johannesburg, Durban, Cape Town and Port Elizabeth. To date a total of 46 Young Professionals have obtained professional registration in various fields.
The growing of our own skilled professionals is key to the DPW’s strategic goal of rebuilding professional and technical capacity within the Department to plan and manage projects.
It also allows us to make huge savings on consultants’ fees, for example, as we capacitate the Directorate of Town and Regional Planning to deal with backlogs in site clearances, we also generate savings of ±R200,000 per project on consultants fees. This also speeds up service delivery to clients. To date, 30% of site clearance processes are conducted in-house with an anticipated 90% increase of site clearances to be executed internally in the coming years.
DPW Architectural Services is currently establishing an internal design team with its current team of Young Professionals, whilst at Project Management Support, Young Professionals continue to provide capacity in managing the vast capital projects including those under planned maintenance.
Currently there are 54 candidates participating in the Programme. The majority of them will obtain professional registration in 2014. With funding from the Construction Education and Training Authority (CETA) will see the Programme being rolled out in other regions in 2014. The immediate target is to increase the number of Candidate Engineers on the Programme and to improve throughput rates. A total of 95 candidates will be recruited in 2014.
In conclusion, let me turn to some of the recent developments in the Department of Public Works which are relevant to our discussions today.
Earlier this week the department held its strategic planning Lekgotla to:
- Review progress with the Turnaround Strategy for the Department; and
- To plan for the next MTSF (Medium Term Strategic Framework) period.
As part of that process, we looked closely at the future structure of the Department. We said that by the time we hand over to the new Administration after elections in 2014 – we must have moved decisively towards implementing a structure for DPW – which actually reflects its mandate and core business. This is key to improving the business of DPW.
We argued for a separate Professional Services branch to rebuild the professional and technical skills needed to run DPW and to equip a developmental state.
This is part of our commitment to rebuilding the core professional and technical capacity of DPW, including:
- Joint teams – to better service clients
- Reviving Workshops
- Implementing NIMS (National Infrastructure Maintenance Strategy), and
- A proactive skills development policy and system to produce our own technical, artisan and professional staff.
The Young Professionals Programme is an important part of our strategy for skills development. Our responsibility over the next Administration is to expand such programmes to contribute to the built environment and the National Infrastructure Plan – in line with the National Development Plan – to drive economic development and job creation and ultimately to increase service delivery to our people.
Finally to the young professionals who we are recognising today, congratulations on the road you have travelled thus far, and best wishes for your future development and success. Don’t let anything stand in your way.
I thank you.
