Harnessing and nurturing young talent is at the heart of what leading South African black-owned engineering consulting firm GIBB does, and so a major highlight on the Corporate Social Investment calendar is CESA Job Shadow day.

Now in its sixth year running, the CESA Job Shadow Day serves as a call to action for corporates to develop a pipeline of much needed engineering professionals in South Africa. The initiative is geared towards highlighting the engineering profession, particularly consulting engineering as an exciting career option.

Four times winner of the CESA Excellence Award in the Job Shadow Day category, GIBB is taking a new approach this year by incorporating their various mentorship programmes into one holistic initiative.

To amplify success, GIBB pulled all its development resources into an all inclusive programme, which gave students a 360 degree experience. “Previously, scholars were selected based on their excellent mathematics and science results. This year, we gave grade 9, 10 and 11 learners a project assignment that required students to suggest solutions to improve their communities,” said Yolande van Rooyen, CSI and Events Practitioner at GIBB. 

“The students were assigned with various challenges such as water, sanitation and electricity supply shortages and had to present a report on their responses to the topics. To make this initiative a success, continuous guidance was provided by young GIBB engineers, who gave of their time to provide hands-on assistance for four weeks,” she continued.

The winning grade received a donation towards books or software improvements and experienced a Day in the life of an engineer to understand GIBB’s various engineering sectors, structure and project management processes. The day exposed learners to the dynamic individuals at GIBB who are passionate about the engineering field.  Scholars across the country were taken to nearby engineering sites where they gained insight into various infrastructure development projects.

“Skills development is the heart of what GIBB represents. As a person who came from one of GIBB’s mentorship programmes, I know first hand the value that mentorship can play in developing young engineers,” said Maphuti Mathego, GIBB Draughtsman: Roads, Highways and Airports.

Mathego added, “I am passionate about this year’s initiative, the reason GIBB has transformed Job Shadow Day is to add real value to learners who have an interest and an aptitude for the fields of engineering. The average learner does not actually know why they are on-site and what they should be taking from the initiative, thus involvement from the beginning creates interest and interaction and hopefully a passion for the career.”

GIBB further supports its young engineers through the Generation G initiative which aims to encourage knowledge sharing and mentorship.