South Africa's already small number of qualifying university entrants in the engineering sciences is producing an even smaller pool of graduates. For companies reliant on computer engineering graduates, the news is not good.
If this is not addressed, we're going to run into problems. We're already starting to see the cracks. Sandra Burmeister, CEO, Amprop Lendelahni.
Sandra Burmeister, CEO of Amprop Lendelahni, the executive search company that analyses the pool of graduates entering the workplace, says that output has fallen steadily over the past five years as the drop-out rate has risen. With a fair number of existing engineers exiting the industry every year through retirement, the pool is getting perilously shallow.
"The average age of an engineer is now over 50, and we need to be thinking about how we fill that pipeline. The global average is 11 to 12 years to have someone at a senior enough level to run something meaningful.
"If this is not addressed, we're going to run into problems. We're already starting to see the cracks."
She cites delays in broadband roll-out, due to network providers relying on outsourced service providers as they lack internal capacity.
The other challenge for the industry is that computer engineering also lacks the financial clout that is diverted by way of bursaries to other engineering degrees. "People go where the bursaries are, and in engineering they're more significant than in computing," says Burmeister.
"It's surprising that there are so few bursaries in this area, and the increase in bursaries in science and technology has actually come from government. The reality is that in business, there's not a single sector that doesn't run on a technology platform and every industry has an increasingly sophisticated need for systems.
"We're not keeping pace with that and we need to recognise that. The trend to push up university enrolment is good, but students are falling through the cracks at the other end.
"When you have an industry that changes at this rate, we have to make an investment in skills."
First published in the October 2013 issue of ITWeb Brainstorm magazine
Share