Your IP : 216.73.217.79
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />
<title>CE-track</title>
<style type="text/css">
.CESA {
font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif;
}
.CESA {
font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif;
}
.CESA {
font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif;
color: #333;
}
.CESA p {
font-weight: bold;
}
body,td,th {
font-size: 12px;
font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif;
color: #333;
}
body {
background-color: #FFF;
}
h1 {
font-size: 24px;
color: #36C;
}
.Disclaimer {
font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif;
font-size: 10px;
color: #333;
}
</style>
</head>
<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#333333" link="#3366CC" vlink="#3366CC" alink="#3366CC">
<table width="800" border="0" align="left" cellpadding="5">
<tr>
<td align="left" valign="top" bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><a href="http://www.cesa.co.za"><img src="images/header_october.jpg" width="800" height="191" /></a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left" valign="top" bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><table width="800" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td width="55"><a href="https://twitter.com/the_cesa"><img src="images/Social_tw.jpg" width="58" height="65" alt=""/></a></td>
<td width="50"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/ConsultingEngineersSA"><img src="images/Social_fb.jpg" width="53" height="65" alt=""/></a></td>
<td width="47"><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/consulting-engineers-south-africa/"><img src="images/Social_li.jpg" width="61" height="65" alt=""/></a><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/cesa-consulting-engineers-south-africa-28645477"></a></td>
<td width="630"><img src="images/Social_bar.jpg" width="630" height="65" alt=""/></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left" valign="top" bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><p><img src="images/Line.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="7" /></p>
<p><a href="http://www.cesa.co.za/"><img src="images/indaba_2020_banner.jpg" width="798" height="119" /></a><a href="https://www.cesa.co.za/eventreg?id=175"></a><a href="http://www.cesa.co.za/awards/register.php?type=buyer"></a><a href="https://cesa.co.za/golf/"></a></p>
<h1><img src="images/Line.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="7" /></h1>
<table width="650" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
<tr>
<td align="left" valign="top"><h1><a><strong>Working Towards Diversity Through Transformation Within the Consulting Engineering Industry</strong></a></h1>
<p> </p></td>
<td rowspan="4" align="center" valign="top" bgcolor="#B6B6B6"><a href="https://sa.aon.co.za/2vya356"><img src="images/Aon.gif" width="150" height="300" alt=""/></a><a href="https://www.avkvalves.com/en"></a>
<p><a href="http://www.cesa.co.za/bce/"><img src="images/bce_tower.jpg" width="150" height="450" alt=""/></a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.cesa.co.za/scelist"><img src="images/sce_tower.jpg" alt="" width="150" height="450" /></a></p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left" valign="top"><em><strong><a class="pull-left" href="#"><img src="images/jeshika.jpg" alt="" width="630" height="210" class="media-object" /></a></strong></em>
<table width="630" border="0" cellpadding="5">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><p>CESA’s newly constituted Gender Diversity Forum, part of the organization’s Transformation Committee is focused on leveling the playing field in the consulting engineering industry aimed at ensuring inclusivity for all. Started early this year the Forum was created as a holistic solution incorporating all stakeholders aimed at initiating a broader discussion on the topic of gender diversity and inclusivity.</p>
<p>Chaired by Jeshika Ramchund the Forum is taking on an advisory role providing a platform for conversations as an enabler of transformation and diversity within the industry and encouraging participation from Member Firms as well as all industry stakeholders.</p>
<p>Chris Campbell, CESA CEO states, “As an industry association we are promoting the value that diversity can bring to our member’s businesses. The statistics clearly indicate the positive benefits that embracing diversity has on an organization’s bottom line results with a McKinsey study recently reporting that companies that have embraced diversity are 21% more likely to experience above average profitability. Our focus is on moving away from quotas and tokenism and focusing on how you can truly show value”.</p>
<p>In addition to this South Africa has a voice in the global footprint with our linkages and alliances to what the International Federation of Consulting Engineers (FIDIC) is doing in terms of diversity and inclusivity working towards a society that is inclusive of all.</p>
<p>“Our aim is for CESA to take on the role of enabler and not an enforcer providing a platform for these types of important conversations”, he says. “Many of our larger member firms have policies in place, our aim is to take on an advisory role in terms of strategy and tools on how best to deal with the challenges of diversity, understanding the landscape of what the South Africa requires”.</p>
<p>Currently, on a macro level, in terms of CESA members within professionally registered staff 28% are female and 72% male. In 2018 the Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA) reported that of the 17 000 Professionally Registered Engineers only 6% were female; of the 5300 Professional Engineering Technologists only 400 are females; of the 4300 Professional Engineering Technicians 804 are female. Stats SA reports that there are currently 8,7% registered female practitioners. These statistics clearly indicate that we are lagging behind international trends as reported in a European survey of 11 countries the average number of registered female engineers averaged at 45% with the United Kingdom the lowest at 43%.</p>
<p>“It is important that these statistics are a reflection of society bearing in mind the legacy issues that we need to work on. The stark reality is the lack of mentors that they can identify with, Dr. Allison Lawless in her book Numbers and Needs writes that the age profile of women in engineering in South Africa dramatically tapers off at older ages resulting in a serious legacy issue. It is important that we work at closing this gap. We need to work on what we can do to try and influence and create an enabling environment for women engineers to remain in the industry. There is also a shift in the number of younger women – commonly known as the phenomenon of the’ leaky pipeline’ – who are leaving the industry over a period of time resulting in a limited number of women rising to C-suite levels. Of the 1399 females registered with CESA only 12% are in top management roles and not all of them are engineers.</p>
<p>CESA has a developed a number of initiatives in order to actively address this ‘leaky pipeline’ through a focus on STEM education. At school level right up to matric maths and science is not always prioritized. There are challenges in our education system that limits the number of females going into STEM careers. CESA through our Job Shadowing Initiative as well as our Schools Outreach Programmes showcase the types of STEM careers available to students. There is however, a need to create alliances with education system. At a tertiary level access to finance and securing a place to study is a particular concern leading to an attrition in numbers. Once tertiary studies are completed there are limited opportunities for in-service training and mentorship opportunities. The search for jobs is challenging and we are struggling with high graduate unemployment figures. Once female graduates are ready to join the workforce there are a variety of situations that may or may not allow them to get into a good graduate mentorship programme – to grow and be able to contribute positively to the industry.</p>
<p>“In order to develop a professionally registered female engineer there needs to be an availability of mentors and we currently have a challenge to match mentor to mentee. There are numerous reasons why women fall through the cracks and this needs to be investigated”, states Campbell.</p>
<p>A study conducted on women in engineering as presented by Ms. Mandana Cont at the FIDIC and Asia-Pacific Bali Conference in 2014 reported that women in engineering experienced:</p>
<ul>
<li>Lesser opportunities and career progress</li>
<li>Lower salaries with jobs precarious</li>
<li>Lack of opportunities </li>
<li>Not being heard</li>
<li>Women’s Health issues</li>
<li>Discrimination – indirect and direct</li>
<li>Less recognition of wok done</li>
<li>Less authority</li>
</ul>
<p>The CESA Diversity Committee is already active, established from CESA member firms and is open to external parties to ensure that once the challenges and issues have been fully identified they need to be part of the solution. “As a collective we need to work on reducing unconscious biases behind decision making and behaviors. Our aim is to maintain strategic alliances with other organisations as we do not want to reinvent wheel but find synergy on areas of commonality for the benefit of the industry and country as a whole”, concluded Campbell.</p></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p><img src="images/Line.jpg" alt="" width="650" height="7" /></p>
<p> </p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left" valign="top"><p> </p></td>
</tr>
</table>
<p><img src="images/Line.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="7" /></p>
<p align="left"> </p>
<h2 align="left">Disclaimer</h2>
<p align="left" class="Disclaimer">This publication is an attempt to share information of interest with members and readers. Articles on products and ideas featured in this publication from other sources do not of necessity carry the endorsement of CESA unless explicitly so indicated. </p>
<p class="Disclaimer">CE-news Contributions <br />
• Email or phone Dennis Ndaba at dennis@cesa.co.za or 011 463 2022 to contribute news, comment etc. <br />
• Email Wally Mayne at wallym@cesa.co.za if you work for a member firm and would like to receive a copy of this newsletter direct.<br />
• News of member firms is usually provided by the firms themselves or copied from their newsletters or the media.</p>
<p class="Disclaimer">Copyright © CESA 2017</p></td>
</tr>
</table>
</body>
</html>