An investigation into the statistics of professional civil engineers and the demand and supply of professional female civil engineers in South Africa is realistic.

Abstract

This research investigated the registered professional engineers‟ statistics in the South African context. Thereafter, an in-depth discipline specific exploration of the number of graduate civil engineers produced during 2001- 2014 from four (4) leading universities in South Africa was undertaken. Differences between the gender statistics, with regards to graduates and time frames taken to register as a professional civil engineer, were determined in conjunction with ratios developed for forecasting. Evaluation of graduate civil engineers transitioning into professional engineers is important and necessary to benefit the country in order to establish if the supply is adequate. With the current gender empowerment goals implemented by government, many organisations are left with an urgent need to fill positions with registered female civil engineers but are finding this difficult. The knowledge and experience gained from this study has resulted in a better understanding of the lack of professional engineers with emphasis in the civil engineering sector and female representation in South Africa. The demand and supply of female engineers is very unbalanced and with the current trends that have been formulated, the ability to fulfil these demands worsen with time unless measures are implemented to alleviate the situation going forward. It was the intention of the author that this research be viewed as a preliminary investigation, which could be used to assess the viability of launching more comprehensive investigations on this topic.