DWA to headhunt senior, specialist engineers – Molewa

The Department of Water Affairs (DWA) is, from this year, headhunting senior and specialist engineers, Water and Environmental Affairs Minister Edna Molewa has said.

“This programme has been approved and service providers are in place to assist with the process of filling all engineering related posts from this year,” the Minister noted in a written response to a Parliamentary question submitted by African Christian Democratic Party Member of Parliament Cheryllyn Dudley.

Further, Molewa stated that a technical and scarce-skills development programme, the Learning Academy (LA), which was initiated in 2007 in reaction to engineering skills shortages affecting the DWA and the general water sector, was an investment in sustaining the “quality” of the department’s entry-level human resources.

She indicated that the LA was designed to meet specific organisational requirements and ensure a steady supply of high-level skills in water-related science, engineering and technical disciplines.

The LA aimed to ensure the longer-term competitiveness of the department by providing aspiring engineers, scientists and technicians the opportunity to be exposed to real-time professional work experience and training.

A minimum of 50 engineering bursaries are awarded to learners every year through the programme.

“Since 2007, a total of 270 external bursaries have been awarded in engineering disciplines. On successful completion of their studies, 139 of these graduates joined the department as graduate trainees, candidate engineers or engineering technicians,” said Molewa.

She added that there were 111 engineering bursars at various universities in the current academic year.

The Minister also pointed out that the number of engineers employed by the DWA had grown from 130 in April 2008 to 321 in December 2012.

These included engineering assistants, chief engineers, principal engineers, senior engineers and deputy chief engineers.