Skills shortage jeopardises crucial infrastructure projects

The infrastructure sector will have to find innovative and creative ways to address the skills shortage they face if they do not want to jeopardise crucial projects. This was the finding of the Infrastructure Sector Survey 2009 carried out by Johannesburg-based executive research firm, Landelahni Business Leaders. While employment in the sector has doubled from 4% to 8% and the number of engineers graduating from universities has soared, the shortage of key skills in the industry remains worrying. Says Sandra Burmeister, Landelahni CEO: “Globally research shows that skills shortages are the biggest constraint for construction growth, with project and contract managers, tradesmen and engineers cited as the scarcest of all skills. South Africa is well known for its engineering skills, and the infrastructure sector is competing for skills in the global resourcing market.” The survey, which researched 82 companies with just over 214 268 employees, representing about 40% of permanent employment in the infrastructure sector, found that there had not been any significant reduction of employees in the industry despite the global financial crisis, but that it drew largely on the skills of people. South Africa’s infrastructure capital investment is estimated at about R900- billion while employment has increased from 634 000 in 2001 to about 1.2 million in 2007, with some 44% employed on a permanent basis. In 2006 the sector saw growth of 15% that increased to 21.7% in 2007. “Despite in-house training accelerating and employment increasing, the skills shortage is not being addressed. The industry in the next few years will have to guard against short term delivery at the expense of skills investment,” said Burmeister. “When we talk about skills shortages, we must quantify where those needs are. Currently there is no base of data on where our shortages lie. Information is the base of how we move forward, and determining exactly what the industry needs are is crucial.” While South Africa saw 35 511 engineers graduate across all sectors between 1998 and 2006, the country only has a total of 14 234 professional engineers registered across all disciplines in the country, 1100 fewer than there were ten years ago. “The skills challenge in the sector is exacerbated by significant numbers of small and medium contractors that have little capacity to train and develop staff.” She said skills development needed to take place across all levels in organisations, including a large component of technical and professional staffing. “The skills challenge is not over and will continue to be a challenge for the next ten years at least. The demand for skills in the infrastructure sector calls for more innovative approaches.” She said one way of doing this was to link executive incentives to the increase of skills across a business, not just advancing the bottom line.