The Covid-19 pandemic has challenged and shifted the premise upon which the Engineering Council of South Africa’s (ECSA’s) Satellite Centres were introduced, leading to the suspension of these four centres, says ECSA acting strategic services executive Millicent Kabwe.

In email correspondence to Engineering News, she explains that the pandemic has challenged the operating model of the contact centres, which is currently not a sustainable method of conducting business in light of the pandemic.

Based on this, and after consideration and pursuance of available alternatives, ECSA has taken the decision to suspend the four Satellite Centres.

However, Kabwe confirms that the suspension of the contact centres will not affect the processing of applications, continuous professional development (CPD) activities, interviews that need to be conducted, reviews to be held or other operations conducted by ECSA.

ECSA is also in the process of digitising a number of its services and thereby streamlining its operations to ensure it effectively and efficiently serves its stakeholders.

Following the road shows in the 2016/17 financial year and feedback from attendees, a need for the establishment of ECSA Satellite Centres across major cities in the country was identified.

In response to this need, as well as ECSA’s retention strategy, ECSA then established four Satellite Centres in Cape Town, Durban, Bloemfontein and East London during the following financial year.

The four satellite centres operated as an extension of the ECSA footprint to facilitate physical accessibility for, but not limited to, registered persons who require assistance with specific queries, registration interviews, CPD query resolutions, and training sessions for reviewers and evaluators, as well as assist members of the community with engineering related information.