Abstract
The legacy of apartheid has had a negative influence on the development of engineering skills amongst the black population in South Africa. Because of these adverse effects, the post-apartheid government attempted to remedy the imbalances of the past through scholarships offered to disadvantaged students to address equity. This recognition of the imbalances of the past has led to an increase in the number of students enrolled at universities and in engineering programmes. The quest for these academic qualifications is motivated not only by personal development but also by a desire to contribute to the economic development of the country and has generated an increase in the number of engineering graduates. The increase in the number of graduate engineers is supported by public authorities through its mass training policy, which has been closely associated with the political transition. The developing lifestyle of the new South Africa has in turn led to an increase in the general population. As a result, population growth represents an important commercial opportunity in terms of the populations’ increasing needs for the development and deployment of new technologies. This situation constitutes a fertile space for transformation through the development of engineering skills and presents countless opportunities for industry to improve its services and products by recruiting suitable technical personnel. Therefore, addressing societal needs and supporting economic growth by maintaining and improving the public and industrial infrastructure inherited from the apartheid era would be a tremendous benefit for the population in general and engineering graduates.
Unfortunately, the increasing enrolment of engineering students has led to the perception that there is an oversupply of engineering graduates in the South African labour market. These graduates leave universities in the hope of finding employment and contributing to the country’s economic development but often struggle to find jobs. At the same time, the industrial community claims that there is a shortage of technicians, technologists, and engineers to assume the jobs available. Hence, there is a perception which highlights the skills gap between engineering graduates and professionally registered engineers. The engineering profession in South Africa is governed by the Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA) as a statutory body under the Council of the Built Environment (CBE). As part of its mandate, ECSA oversees the engineering profession in South Africa in terms of the professional registration of engineers and the accreditation of undergraduate engineering academic programs on behalf of the Council of Higher Education (CHE). In its role as the accreditation body for undergraduate engineering academic programs, ECSA is also a signatory to the Washington, Dublin, and Sydney accords.
The extent of the engineering skills gap between graduation and professional registration is assessed and dynamically modelled in this thesis using a systems approach. This approach allows for the analysis of the pre and post qualification training processes in South Africa in a holistic way to better understand the dynamics and interactions between the relevant stakeholders that create particular perceptions. The research objectives are achieved by analysing the skills development policies, higher education funding mechanisms, ECSA processes and the roles of the stakeholders involved in engineering education in South Africa. The stakeholder analysis includes identifying the stakeholders, gauging their influence on the perceptions held, and dynamically modelling the engineering skills development process using a systems approach. The use of a systems approach allows the engineering skills development process to be assessed in a holistic way.
Due to the nature of this thesis, following its social paradigm, a qualitative approach is applied to data collection in the field. The use of a qualitative approach to a study of a social context of engineering, the skills mismatch between graduates and professionally registered engineers was thoroughly investigated through research surveys, interviews, and questionnaires. The qualitative approach was aimed to explore and identify evidence, perceptions, opinions, and the effects of the skills mismatch on electrical engineering graduates in South Africa. From this holistic approach, the findings from the
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questionnaires and interviews were incorporated into the design of a dynamic systems model using the Stella Professional simulation software after a statistical analysis was performed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software. Three findings were discovered from the dynamic systems model. The first finding enabled the quantification of the current state of engineering skills development, while the other two helped describe the dynamics of the engineering skills development process in cases where the stakeholders applied more effort to forecasting, which led to more graduates and/or more registered engineers.
Based on the results obtained from the questionnaires, surveys, and the dynamic simulation, it was established that there is a large discrepancy between the pass rates of 4th-year engineering students and the number of student dropouts. These differences were exacerbated by the shortcomings of the quality assurance mechanisms put in place by the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) for ensuring a better skills development process, as the average time to obtain an engineering qualification varies from 4 to 6.5 years. Because of the low pass rate in the 4th-year, the number of candidates that registered for engineering internships is considerably low. Due to the policy and stakeholder shortcomings, the time to complete an internship, which is a requirement for professional registration, is lengthened. An in-depth analysis of the results made it possible to develop a long-term forecasting model which may be used as a tool to support policy decision-making. In short, the allegations from academia and industry that graduates cannot find jobs in industry and that industry cannot find candidates for advertised positions have been established, and in addition, it is made clear that the number of engineering graduates and registered engineers depend on the involvement of the relevant stakeholders in the process. It has been established that, despite stakeholder contributions to the process, an increasing number of engineering graduates and registered engineers are actively seeking to emigrate from South Africa. On a positive note, the Sector Education and Training Authorities (SETAs) involvement in identifying engineering candidacy phase opportunities has been acknowledged. In addition to supporting policy decision-making through forecasting, the system has been modelled and simulated dynamically, which makes it possible to better refine the efforts of the stakeholders for an improved implementation. Given that the government, through the DHET, constitutes the majority funder of engineering higher education, the low success rates observed in engineering faculties do not correspond to the financial investments made by the DHET. As a direct consequence, the number of engineering graduates who are eligible to register for the candidacy phase is reduced and subsequently erodes the number of registered engineers.
From the results of the simulation of the engineering skills development process, important steps must be taken to optimise the investments made by the stakeholders through the encouragement of cooperative relationships. This would make it possible to better analyse the systemic blockages with a view to increasing the success rates at universities. This increase must come from the improved quality of the students who enrol in engineering, a reduction in dropouts through the recommendations made, and the continuous development of teaching and laboratory personnel. Addressing these limitations could only have a positive impact on the quality of engineers trained in South Africa. Looking at the results of the dynamic simulation for a forecast on more graduates or a forecast on more professional registration, it was established that the number of graduates and registered engineers would increase in proportion to the government’s commitment to professional development policies in engineering.
An additional contribution by means of the Della Tamin Index (DT-Index) is considered the keystone of this research. It innovates by opening a door to a new field of research. This index aims to enable policymakers to rank higher education institutions based on the respective contributions of relevant stakeholders.
Keywords: Dynamic-modelling, Engineering education, Stakeholders, Perception, Qualification, DT-Index.