Since its launch in June 2022, civil engineering professional body South African Institution of Civil Engineering’s (SAICE’s) engineering community platform SAICE Connect has proven to be a successful targeted networking and recruitment portal for South Africa’s civil engineering sector.

SAICE Connect was created to solve employment and mentorship issues in a practical way by allowing engineers and employers with vacancies to use a “dedicated space” to find each other.

Engineering professionals in SAICE can upload their curriculum vitae, making themselves visible to employers that are actively looking for talent.

When an employer finds a candidate, whose profile matches what their project needs, they can request to view that profile and see the candidate’s full qualifications.

Since every person on the platform is a verified SAICE member, “employers can be confident they are looking at someone with relevant credentials”.

For the engineering profession, this type of connected environment is crucial, says SAICE, noting that, when engineers are well supported, well placed, and well connected, they deliver better outcomes for the projects they work on and for the communities those projects serve.

“The infrastructure money is committed. The demand for skilled engineers is already growing, and it will continue to grow in the months and years ahead. What the sector needs now is for the right people to be in the right places when those projects kick off,” SAICE comments.

SAICE Connect is SAICE’s direct response to this need, with the institution leveraging its network, credibility and platform in service of the sector.

Growing Again

SAICE suggests that South Africa is heading into one of its biggest construction periods in decades.

At the sixth South Africa Infrastructure Investment Summit held in May 2026, President Cyril Ramaphosa made it clear that government is serious about infrastructure development, committing R1.07-trillion over the next three years to roads, energy, water and other critical infrastructure across the country.

The scale of what is planned is hard to ignore, says SAICE, adding that government has set aside over R400-billion for transport and logistics, R219-billion for energy, and R156-billion for water and sanitation.

“These figures represent real projects that will need engineers, project managers, and technical professionals to plan, design and deliver them. Each of these projects depend on a skilled workforce that is ready and available to get the job done,” the organisation points out.

“We have recorded four consecutive quarters of growth into early 2026, although we are yet to see this translate into a meaningful rise in employment,” Ramaphosa noted during the summit.

SAICE believes that the engineering and construction sectors have a direct role to play in closing the gap between job opportunities and skilled professionals.

SAICE has always believed that a strong profession produces strong infrastructure, and that means investing not just in technical standards, but in the people who carry those standards into the field.

“It means making sure that engineering professionals at every stage of their career have access to the support, opportunities and connections that allow them to do their work to the best of their ability,” SAICE concludes.