This document summarizes a research study on career development issues faced by graduate engineers in South Africa. The study involved questionnaires to analyze how graduate engineers perceive their career development training and whether they receive relevant skills training. Most graduate engineers are willing to learn and be trained but say career growth opportunities and meaningful work tasks are important for skills development. While training is essential, guidance from mentors and managers is needed to align it with organizational needs. The research recommends further study on actual training issues, manager expectations, and work-based training methods to better support graduate engineer development.

1. TOWARDS DEVELOPING AN ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT APPROACH TO
RESOLVING DEVELOPMENTAL ISSUES FACED BY GRADUATE ENGINEERS
Name: Sabata Mohlamme
Student Number: 809817772
Supervisor: Prof Jan-Harm Pretorius
Co-Supervisor: Dr Andre Malan
Date: February 2015
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2. CONTENTS
• Introduction
• Research Approach
• Questionnaires
• Results Analysis and Interpretation
• Conclusions
• Recommendations
• Questions
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3. INTRODUCTION
• South Africa is among the most rapidly developing states globally and in the African
continent.
• The country is expanding in sectors like infrastructure development, technology improvement
and economic advancement.
• As result, there is a strong emphasis on a need for professional graduates that will able to
undertake such massive infrastructural, economic and technological developments.
• Thus design, construction and maintenance of industrial machines and equipment require the
expertise of experienced and skilled engineers.
• This presentation address:
• Issues of career development in the engineering field
• How engineering graduates perceive their career developmental training.
• Does engineering graduates receive relevant training in their field of engineering.
• Management intervention in engineering career development of graduate engineers.
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4. RESEARCH APPROACH
1. Analysing Existing Research
• A great deal of this research is informed by:
• existing related literature
• data available on graduate skills development for engineers.
• management interventions in training and development of engineers.
• Information will then be linked to the current practices in
industry with an aim to gauge the following:
• nature and behaviour of graduate engineers
• their expectations as well as
• management practises and expectations.
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5. CONT: RESEARCH APPROACH
2. Analysing Questionnaire Results
• A set of questionnaire informed by the gathered literature was developed
and divided into the following sections:
• Job selection criteria
• Engineering career development
• Engineering skills training
• Management interventions and/or involvement
• Personal career development within the engineering field
• General questions.
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6. 6
Questionnaire

7. 7

8. 8
Results Analysis and Interpretation

9. 9
Cont: Result Analysis and Interpretation
Not at all
11%
Sometimes
43%
Often
35%
Too Often
11%
Q11: How Often do you consult your mentor for clarity on
tasks, assignments or projects?. Not at all
0%
Sometimes
19%
Often
62%
Too Often
19%
Q10: How Often do you get involved in meaningful
tasks to enhance your knowledge and experiance?.

10. 10
CONT: RESULT ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION

11. 11
Cont: Result Analysis and Interpretation
Not at all
0%
Sometimes
33%
Often
24%
Too Often
43%
Q12: How Often do you get to undertake different
tasks?.
Very Poor
3%
Poor
8%
Fair
30%
Good
40%
Very Good
19%
Q13: What is the Level of interaction/communication with
your mentor or manager like?.

12. CONCLUSIONS
• Most engineering graduates are confident and willing to learn and be trained
enough to improve their engineering ingenuity.
• In considering employment in various sectors of the engineering industry,
graduate engineers look at skills development and the prospects of new
challenges as the main criteria when selecting a job
• In order to be developed in their careers, graduate engineers value the prospects
of career growth within an organisation, as well as the opportunity to do varied
and meaningful engineering tasks and assignments
• Training, skills transfer and early career development are essential for graduate
engineers and, as such, must be addressed, emphasised and encouraged by
organisations.
• Guidance from mentors and managers is nevertheless required to establish the
training relevant to organisational requirements
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13. RECOMMENDATIONS
• Further research on the actual issues that affect training of
graduate engineers.
• Expectations of engineering managers and mentors.
• Actual work based training methods.
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THANK YOU
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