Fewer than 105 000 matriculants out of the 496 000 who sat for their final exams in 2011 are able to pursue studies in engineering this year.

This poor result tightens the skills stranglehold that has gripped South Africa’s engineering sector in recent years and paints a bleak picture for companies looking to fill learnership programmes in the years ahead, reports Network Engineering, a specialist division of recruitment agency Network Recruitment.

Branch manager Marna Thompson says the Department of Basic Education’s 2011 technical report shows that only 104 033 matrics passed maths last year – just 46.3% of those that wrote the exam. The report also shows that not only has the number of matrics writing maths steadily declined since 2008, but the number of learners passing the subject has dropped too – by more than 30 000 learners over the past four years.

“Maths is significant for careers in the scientific, medical and engineering fraternities – all sectors where South Africa has historically had a skills shortage. But instead of growing the numbers of learners that are able to go to university and pursue studies in these faculties, we are increasingly losing learners. This does not bode well for the future of this sector, particularly the upskilling of learners through apprenticeship or learnership programmes,” Thompson explains.

The engineering sector and, specifically, the local mining industry have long been plagued by limited numbers of people entering and successfully completing industry learnerships. While Network Engineering previously only focused on placing qualified engineers, it has increasingly had to broaden its scope to include placing students in learnerships as well.

“Companies in this sector have an obligation to tackle the skills shortage by establishing learnerships and apprenticeships. But the current skills scarcities often mean these companies do not have the internal capacity to institute such programmes or recruit the learners they need to fill them. We assist by guiding clients in developing new learnerships and/or locating the right learners for the programme,” Thompson adds.

Network’s services include assessing the client’s needs in terms of the learnership; locating the ideal learners for the programme; determining a pricing structure for the candidates; placing the candidates; and facilitating the on-boarding process. All this ensures that suitable learners are placed within the correct programmes.

“This is particularly important now, given the diminishing pool of students companies have to choose from – a trend that seems set to continue if the matric results are anything to go by. Ultimately, more emphasis has to be placed on learners taking maths at school level, followed by increased support at tertiary level, including during the learnership or apprenticeship. That would be a good start to dealing with the sector’s skills shortcomings,” Thompson concludes.

Courtesy of Engineering News