Top female engineer digs deep for insight in civil engineering skills shortage
By Janus Snyders

The National Science and Technology Forum (NSTF) winner for activities other than research shared some of her achievements over the last 5 years with the East-Rand Stereo listeners.

Allyson Lawless was awarded the NSTF award in May 2008 for her contribution to addressing imbalances in the civil engineering profession. In her position as the first female president of the South African Institution of Civil Engineering (SAICE), Lawless became concerned about the training and the skills required in the civil engineering field. “I kept visiting technikons and universities and finding that although the young people were studying, they could not get experience or training or work. When I spoke to the industry they said to me they can’t find staff,” Lawless said during her interview.

In 2003, Lawless started doing extensive research on why there was this disjuncture. “What emerged was that the industry felt that the young people were not career ready and their training wasn’t adequate for them to pick up the load from where they came,” Lawless elaborated. The research culminated in the publication of ‘Numbers and Needs: Addressing Imbalances in the Civil Engineering Profession’.  One of those recommendations was to link retired people with young people who could not get work and to put together little teams that were placed at local governments to address service delivery.

According to the book the status of civil engineering staff in local government was estimated to be between 1 300 and 1 400, indicating a nett loss of 70 to 90 per year since the late eighties. The book also pointed out that “In terms of the number of households per technical staff it has been found that at least one civil engineering professional is needed for every 4 000 to 5 000 households”  and that the amount of civil engineers should be doubled to serving the South African population.

In terms of the NSTF award, Lawless regarded it as ‘a real boost’. “When you are working on big projects like these, you get exhausted and you wonder if you are achieving anything”.

Lawless concluded the interview with a message to females: “You have as much skills, as much opportunities and chance to make a difference. Hang in there and be bold, and you will make it”