JG Afrika, a leading firm of consulting engineers, is helping its young engineers and technicians attain professional registration with the Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA).

Eleven candidates were successfully registered as professional engineers recently: six from the firm’s Cape Town office, two from its Pietermaritzburg branch and two from Johannesburg. A further three candidates are currently preparing for their registrations this year.

Born out of the South African Institution of Civil Engineering’s (SAICE’s) Road to Registration Course, JG Afrika’s own programme entitled Peers Working Together Toward Attaining Professional Registration, or “PeeR”, offers support and guidance to candidates seeking professional registration.

Jimen Reddy, who chairs PeeR in Pietermaritzburg, says that the initiative is a concise, comprehensive, informative and inspirational way of motivating young engineers and technicians to assess their own career paths.

“The name says it all – a peer group of young engineers supporting and motivating one another towards professional registration. It’s an open environment where we share knowledge and skills to help advance each other’s careers,” Reddy says.

A candidate engineer in the firm’s roads division who joined JG Afrika in 2016 as a bursary student, Reddy is also now preparing to become an ECSA-registered professional in 2020.

The programme allows candidates to interact with one another as well as with senior JG Afrika mentors during monthly PeeR meetings. Candidates’ progress is monitored against monthly goals, thereby holding individuals accountable to the group and realistic targets are established and achieved to continually develop them toward professional registration.

JG Afrika Associate and an ECSA examiner and reviewer, Jefrey Pilusa, provides input into candidates’ technical reports, after they have been submitted to other members of the PeeR group and then to their various line managers for review. Pilusa and other senior JG Afrika staff participate in short “mock” presentations where candidates have the opportunity to practice their presentation skills in a safe environment.

The process is constantly being refined to encourage interaction and networking, as well as develop support mechanisms.

For example, young qualified engineers prepare pre-interview notes consisting of a list of questions that they themselves were asked by ECSA examiners, as well as other useful pointers, to help their colleagues better prepare for their assessments.

Furthermore, inter-branch “mock” presentations take place via Video Call so that there is a cross-pollination of ideas from different regions.

Zama Mdlalose, who chairs the PeeR group in the Western Cape, explains: “Registered engineers or candidates from the different JG Afrika branches sometimes join our meetings and mock presentation sessions. Senior engineers at our Cape Town office, the mentors who share their skills and experience with candidates, also sit in on mock presentations.”

An Associate and senior municipal engineer, Mdlalose participated in the PeeR programme herself and received her professional registration in 2019. She is therefore justifiable proud to be part of an initiative that has benefited the career paths of so many of her peers, raised the number of professionally registered staff at JG Afrika, and helped the engineering industry to retain engineers, technologists and technicians in the profession.

Our sincere congratulations to the following young professionals:

Viola Milner – Pr Eng 01/03/2019

Zama Mdlalose – Pr Eng 03/05/2019

Shehaam Benjamin – Pr Tech Eng 30/05/2019

Liz Dralle – EAPASA 01/10/2019

Peter van Wyk – Pr Eng 02/12/2019

Tommy du Toit – Pr Eng 09/12/2019

Graham Pearson – Pr Eng 19/12/2019

Byron Mawer – Pr Eng 05/02/2020

Tarryn van Vuuren – Pr Tech Eng 20/02/20

Zanele Mashinini – Pr Eng 27/02/2020

Annamarie Stander – Pr Eng 27/02/2020