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Engineering Skills Development Through Mega Construction Projects (MCPs)

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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-41979-0_3

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 DII-2019-048

Engineering Skills Development through Mega

Construction Projects (MCPs)
Tshepo Jeremia Lephoto1 and Nthatisi Khatleli2

Abstract

There is a notable engineering skills deficit (ESD) in South Africa. Among other interventions, the
proliferation of skills development policies, engineering skills development programmes (ESDPs), and
the use of expatriate engineering professionals in Mega Construction Projects (MCPs), have been the
main interventions promulgated by the government. This study sought to investigate the effectiveness of
expatriate professionals in transferring engineering skills to candidate engineers in South African MCPs.
This study is of particular significance to the construction industry in South Africa, and can contribute
towards addressing the current ESD. Due to the nature of questions which this study pursued to answer,
a case study strategy was adopted. A mixed-method data collection was used, with the aim of enabling
the findings to complement each other in the form of questionnaires and in-depth interviews. Quantitative
data involved numeric scores from questionnaires and qualitative data included interviews which aimed
at assessing the structure of the ESDPs in South African MCPs and to also assess the sentiments of the
beneficiaries. Secondary data from annual reports were used to investigate the throughput of engineering
skills since the inception of the South African MCPs. Candidates’ opinions were that there are no
institutional arrangements which bind expatriates to honour their commitment to engineering skills
transfer. An absence of institutional arrangements, a lack of understanding of the unique South African
culture and problems related to communication barriers problems appear to be the main factors which
cause expatriates to be less effective than potentially possible. The central conclusion to be drawn from
the discussion is that there is a relative ESD which could increase if ESDPs are not properly structured.

Keywords: Engineering skills development, mega construction projects, expatriate skills transfer.

1. Orientation of the study

1.1 Background to the problem

South Africa is facing a high unemployment rate and an enormous engineering skills deficit (ESD),
notably among previously marginalised groups. For four consecutive years since 2007, ESD has been
singled out as an obstacle to socio-economic growth in South Africa (Thornton, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010).
This continued ESD can be partially linked to constraints inherited from the apartheid regime, instituted
between 1948 and 1994. The apartheid government passed legislative Acts such as the: Industrial
Conciliation Act of 1956; Native Building Workers Act of 1951; Native Labour Regulations Act of 1911;
Apprenticeship Act of 1944; and Mines and Works Act of 1911 (Deane, T., 2005). These aforementioned
Acts reserved skilled engineering work for the White population and prevented Black Africans from
becoming engineers. The Bantu Education Act of 1953 further provided an education system which was
organised on racial lines and prevented Black Africans from undertaking engineering studies. High-
quality education was for so many decades the preserve of the White population. These structural
deficiencies in turn created long-term ESD patterns and racial disparities in South Africa. The post-

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apartheid challenge is to transform these racial disparities which were promoted by the apartheid regime
and provide a more equitable society.

South Africa’s first attempt at redeeming this situation could be traced as early as 1997 when the National
Skills Development Strategy (NSDS) was announced as a national strategic response to skills
development problems (DoE, 1997). The announcement of the NSDS (1997) led to the establishment of
two key skills development policies in South Africa, namely: Skills Development Act of 1998 as
amended in 2008; and Skills Development Levies Act of 1999 as amended in 2010. Recent attempts are
captured in the amended NSDS III, which is significantly different from its two predecessors (NSDS I
and NSDS II). In addition to these strategic responses to the ESD problem, government has also embarked
on a large infrastructure spending mandating, among other things, affirmative action and engineering
skills development through Mega Construction Projects (MCPs).

South African MCPs such as the Gautrain Rapid Rail Link and Eskom Capacity Expansion Programme
present current and future opportunities for engineering skills development in the country. While South
Africa has made remarkable strides in transforming racial exclusions which were promoted by the
apartheid regime, the ESD problem is still prevalent. Collectively, the NSDS III and the NDP vision 2030,
concur that despite the remarkable strides made since the advent of the new democracy, the plague of
inequality continues to prevail, unemployment rate remains high and the ESD problem is still prevalent.
Government has, however, committed themselves and made numerous strides to address the ESD
problem. Yet, important challenges remain with key milestones to be achieved.

The plague of inequality continues to prevail and the ESD problem is still prevalent, notably among
previously marginalised people. There is, however, unanimous consensus that engineering skills
development has a key role to play in addressing the triple problems in South Africa, namely:
unemployment, poverty and inequality. There is also growing consensus regarding the ESD problem.
Among the reasons cited to explain this ESD are: the legacy of apartheid, emigration of skilled
professionals, affirmative action measures, poor graduate training and unemployment. This study sought
to investigate the effectiveness of the use of expatriate professionals in contributing towards engineering
skills development in South Africa.

1.2 Problem statement

There is a notable ESD in South Africa. Among other interventions, the proliferation of skills
development policies, engineering skills development programmes (ESDPs), and the use of expatriate
engineering professionals in MCPs, have been the main interventions promulgated by the government.
The effectiveness of expatriate professionals in transferring engineering skills to candidate engineers in
South African MCPs has to be investigated. Thus the aim was to investigate the effectiveness of utilizing
expatriate professionals in transferring engineering skills to candidate engineers in South African MCPs.

1.3 Research objectives

Key objectives for this study were to:

1) Investigate policies which inform the use of expatriate professionals in South African MCPs;
2) Assess the structure of the ESDPs in South African MCPs;
3) Assess the sentiments of the beneficiaries; and
4) Investigate the throughput of engineering skills since the inception of the ESDPs in South African
MCPs.

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2. Literature Review

In 1994, when the first democratically elected government came to power, education and training were
split between the Department of Education (DoE) and the Department of Labour (DoL). The DoL was in
charge of skills development and introduced a National Skills Development Strategy (NSDS) in 1997
(DoL, 1997). This strategy recognised human capital as vital to socio-economic development (SED) and
was aimed at enabling previously marginalised groups to participate more fully in the South African
economy (Tager, N., 2003). The Skills Development Act, announced in 1998 and amended in 2008,
provided an institutional framework to device and implement the NSDS (1997) (DoL, 1998). The Skills
Development Act of 1998 put in place a national regulatory framework that comprised a National Skills
Authority (NSA) and various Sectorial Education and Training Authorities (SETAs). This Act further
provided a financing mechanism to implement the NSDS by means of a levy-grant system and a National
Skills Fund (NSF). The NSA was a replacement of the apartheid National Training Board (NTB), while
SETAs replaced the former Industry Training Board (ITB) (Kraak, 2004). The NSA provides
coordination at national level, while SETAs oversee sectorial coordination.

Despite all these policy reforms by post-apartheid government, the ESD problem in South Africa is still
dominant. With efforts to improve on previous strategies, an amended NSDS III was released by the
former Minister of Higher Education and Training, Dr. B. E Nzimande, in January 2011. The NSDS III
acts as the overarching strategic guide for engineering skills development and provides direction to
construction sector skills planning and implementation for SETAs (DHET, 2011). The strategy further
acts as a framework for the skills development levy resources utilisation by SETAs and the NSF. The
NSDS III further provides a framework for planning and implementation of ESDPs consisting of (DHET,
2011):

1) Seven key developmental and transformation imperatives which provide the focus for skills
development programmes;
2) Seven pillars which offer a basis for the structuring of skills development programmes; and
3) Eight Human Resource Development Strategy for South Africa (HRDS-SA) commitments which
inform and guide the NSDS III.

However, the NSDS III is a subcomponent of the HRDS-SA, and operates concurrently in support of this
strategy. The 2010 - 2030, HRDS-SA details a number of strategic objectives, indicators, and indicative
actions which assign clear responsibilities which need to be reflected in SETAs and NSF plans (HRC-
SA, 2010). Among other strategic objectives for the HRDS-SA, strategic objective two aims at improving
the supply of high quality skills, particularly scarce skills such as engineering (HRC-SA, 2010).

To gain some perspective on ESDPs, various studies (Woorland, I., Kneebon, P. and Lee, D., 2003),
(Kraak, 2004), (Kraak, A., 2008), (Erasmus, 2009), (Rasool, R. and Botha, C.J., 2011) and (Foko, 2015)
were considered, and implications of their conclusions were explored. One of the central doctrines of
Andre Kraak’s work (Kraak, A., 2008) has been that the emphasis on ESDPs is not sufficient in South
Africa. Kraak (2004) further highlights the importance of the Skills Development Levies Act of 1999 and
affirms that levy-grant system gives government influence on skills development. Kraak (2008) further
argues that the SETAs are an improvement over the ITBs, whose legacy included a decline in enterprises
undertaking skills development initiatives and adopting a short-term approach to skills development.
Erasmus (2009) shares a different view relating to the establishment of the NSA, SETAs and NSF.
According to Erasmus (2009), SETAs are supposed to be the intermediaries in the relationship between
skills development and SED requirements.

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According to Erasmus (2009), a labour market analysis conducted by the SETAs is based only on reports
from workplace, and not research (Erasmus, 2009). Kraak (2008) affirms Erasmus’s (2009) findings and
further aligns the failure to produce credible estimates with poor labour intelligence and inadequate
research expertise from SETAs. According to McGrath and Akooje (2007), SETAs were set up in
response to an identified need to advance the workers skills development agenda post-apartheid and thus
represent a vehicle for addressing the ESD and growth imperatives in South Africa (McGrath, S. and
Akooje, S., 2007). Foko (2015), however, shares a slightly different view and argues that South Africa
has made tremendous progress in skills development, notably from the educational system owing to the
Bantu Education Act of 1953. Studies conducted by Kraak (2004 and 2008) and Erasmus (2009) align
with the critique of Woorland, Kneebone and Lee (2003) who find data provided by CETA as not being
reliable (Woorland, I., Kneebon, P. and Lee, D., 2003) and argues that the construction SPPs is developed
internally and is often not properly assessed for quality.

Despite a number of skills development strategy reforms such as the NSDS (1997), South Africa
continues to face considerable ESD (Rasool, R. and Botha, C.J., 2011). Kraak (2008) characterises South
Africa’s skills typology as one that comprises a differentiated basket of high, intermediate and low-skill
training programmes. There appears to be challenges with the current role of CETA, NSA and NSF.
Intervention are required to enforce their legislative mandate which is: engineering skills development.
Despite various policy interventions by post-apartheid government, the ESD problem in South Africa still
persists. A myriad factors contributing to the persisting ESD in South Africa have been identified.
However, only four of these are briefly examined in this study: the legacy of apartheid, emigration of
skilled professionals, affirmative action measures, and poor graduate training.

3. Research Methodology

This study adopted a mixed-methods approach and was guided by the research questions and objectives
for this study. A sequential mixed-method data collection approach in the form of a structured online
survey questionnaire (quantitative data collection), document secondary data (quantitative data
collection) and follow-up semi-structured interviews (qualitative data collection) was adopted to validate
quantitative data with qualitative data and to also address different research questions. This strategy
involved collecting data in an iterative process whereby the data collected in one phase contributed to the
data collected in the second phase. In the first phase, quantitative data were collected using a structured
online survey questionnaire and in the second phase, follow-up up semi-structured interviews were
conducted to collect qualitative data. The third phase was independent and included collecting document
secondary data from annual reports.

A structured online survey questionnaire was used to investigate policies which inform the use of
expatriate professionals in South African MCPs and to also assess the sentiments of the beneficiaries.
Questions in the structured online survey questionnaire were entirely close-ended, and the responses
categories were developed from literature findings. The subsequent semi-structured interview instrument
aimed at assessing the structure of the ESDPs in South African MCPs and to also assess the sentiments
of the beneficiaries. The interview consisted of individualised questions intended to explore particularly
interesting or ambiguous survey responses as well as standard questions exploring general perspectives
on the purpose and future for engineering skills development through South African MCPs. Document
secondary data from ECSA annual reports were used to investigate the throughput of engineering skills
since the inception of the South African MCPs.

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According to Fellows & Liu (2008), the purpose of data analysis is to provide information about variables,
relationships between them and to provide evidence of the relationship to aid understanding. In this study,
the purpose of data analysis was to summarise data so that it is easily understood and provides the answers
to research questions. Thus, during data analysis, thorough knowledge of the study material had already
been accumulated through literature review which created a suitable foundation for the content of the data
and its meaning. This was to ascertain what in the data is relevant when trying to answer the research
question (Malterud, K., 2001). This study made use of the following data analysis techniques:
(a) Tukey’s (1977) Exploratory Data Analysis (EDA) approach for quantitative data; and
(b) Thematic analysis approach for qualitative data.

4. Data Presentation, Analysis and Interpretation

4.1 Policies which inform the use of expatriate professionals in South African MCPs

The first objective of the study was to investigate policies which inform the use of expatriate professionals
in South African MCPs. Findings from both the questionnaire and the interviews indicate a consensus
that the majority of the respondents agree that the dawn of South Africa's skills development policy
framework is by no doubt linked to the apartheid legacy. It is evident that the NSDS, which led to an
establishment of the HRDS-SA, informs the use of expatriate professional in South African MCPs. This
strategy uses the net difference between immigration and emigration of qualified engineers per annum as
an indicator on progress.

4.2 Structure of the ESDPs in South African MCPs

The second objective of the study was to assess the structure of the ESDPs in South African MCPs.
Several respondents in both the questionnaire and the interviews stated that they were not aware of or
only vaguely aware of ESDPs in South African MCPs.

4.3 Sentiments of the beneficiaries

The third objective was to assess the sentiments of the beneficiaries in South African MCPs. Despite the
well-known benefits on mentorship, particularly with regards to engineering professional development
as described by ECSA, it is surprising that few respondents in the interviews indicated that they had
dedicated expatriate mentors. Findings from the questionnaire, however, indicate a consensus that the
majority of the respondents agree that they understand the requirements for one to register as a
professional engineer with ECSA. Furthermore, the majority, namely 24 (38.7%), of the respondents in
the questionnaire indicated that they are registered as professionals.

4.4 Investigate the throughput of engineering skills since the inception of the ESDPs in
South African MCPs

The fourth objective was to investigate the throughput of engineering skills since the inception of the
ESDPs in South African MCPs. In this study, the issue of throughput of engineering skills is located
within its wider social and institutional contexts, and is measured through registration with ECSA.
Findings from both the questionnaire and the interviews indicate a consensus that the majority of the
respondents agree that the continued ESD in South Africa can be partially linked to constraints inherited
from the apartheid era, emigration of skilled engineering professionals, poor graduate training and poor

72
basic education. Findings from document secondary data also indicate that the throughput of black
candidate and professional engineers has been consistently increasing over the period 2009 – 2017.

5. Discussion, Conclusion and Recommendations

5.1 Discussion
The skills development policy framework is backed by financial resources through the skill development
levy-grant system, but the implementation needs to be improved to ensure these resources are used
effectively. Indeed, there are several reasons why the use of expatriate professionals in transferring
engineering skills to candidate engineers in South African MCPs alone may not generate an effective
engineering skills development. However, the optimal response is not necessarily to subsidise engineering
skills development through the levy-grant system or government to directly supply ESDPs. The policy
response could be, instead, to establish an effective institutional and regulatory framework with clear
delegation of roles and responsibilities between expatriates, beneficiaries and the different institutions
involved in the provision of ESDPs in South African MCPs.

Given the ESD and its impacts on timeous completion of South African MCPs, it is imperative that a
properly structured ESDP should be implemented. At the root of the problem is the fact that local
beneficiaries do not have any control over the choice of expatriates who transfer engineering skills to
them. Similarly, expatriates are rarely held accountable for the engineering skills transfer. Overlaying this
problem is the lack of delineation of roles and responsibilities between government, expatriate
professionals and local beneficiaries of which engineering skills transfer is a key objective in South
African MCPs. Moreover, the use of expatriate professionals in transferring engineering skills to
candidate engineers in South African MCPs will not be effective if it does not provide the right set of
incentives and margin of flexibility for those involved in the transfer of engineering skills.

Indeed, skills transfer will only be relevant if the ESDP can ensure that expatriates actually deliver
appropriate engineering skills and expertise to the intended local beneficiaries stipulated on project
specific institutional arrangements. It may be that, given the complexity of international assignments such
as MCPs, expatriates do not have time to engage in developmental relationships or the local beneficiaries
do not know how to initiate a mentorship relation. Real or perceived cultural differences between the
expatriates and local beneficiaries may also hinder the mentorship process. Throughput of engineering
skills, needless to say, is a more complex and contested issue than it might seem. How the throughput of
engineering skills is measured is itself a matter for debate. In this study, the issue of throughput of
engineering skills is located within its wider social and institutional contexts, and is measured through
registration with ECSA. This study argues that the challenge of improving the throughput of engineering
skills is a national priority and critical to long-term socio-economic inclusion and transformation in South
Africa.
5.2 Conclusion
The central conclusion to be drawn from the study is that there is a relative ESD which could increase if
ESDPs are not properly structured. In the short to medium term, the post-apartheid government should
focus on attracting highly-skilled engineering professionals by pursuing proactive immigration policies
and to also adopt appropriate governance agreements which should devise institutional arrangements
that improve accountability on engineering skills development in South African MCPs. There is also a
need to establish an effective institutional and regulatory framework with clear delegation of roles and
responsibilities between expatriates, local beneficiaries and the different institutions involved in the
provision of ESDPs in South African MCPs. ECSA could similarly play an extremely valuable role in

73
 facilitating a high-level engagement with important stakeholders with the aim of establishing a strategic
partnership to strengthen and support ESDPs in South African MCPs.

5.3 Recommendations

The following recommendations are made from this study:

 The post-apartheid government should focus on attracting highly-skilled engineering

professionals by pursuing proactive immigration policies and to also adopt appropriate
governance agreements which should devise institutional arrangements that improve
accountability on engineering skills development in South African MCPs.
 There is also a need to establish an effective institutional and regulatory framework with clear
delegation of roles and responsibilities between expatriates, local beneficiaries and the different
institutions involved in the provision of ESDPs in South African MCPs.
 ECSA could similarly play an extremely valuable role in facilitating a high-level engagement
with important stakeholders with the aim of establishing a strategic partnership to strengthen and
support ESDPs in South African MCPs.

References
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