The Civil Engineering Contractor March 2019 | Page 6

POLICYMAKERS
The skills shortage and what we need to do about it
By Ian Massey, MDA Consulting
In this article, the author reviews the current skills shortage dilemma facing the
construction industry and suggests some remedies to address this predicament.
We do not need to be told that we live in a divided
society. According to informed observers, ours is one of
the most economically polarised societies in the world.
Viewed from the perspective of someone who is on the
wrong side of this economic equation, one of the serious
challenges is that being economically disadvantaged also
means that you probably won’t have the skills to address your
predicament. You are probably one of the very large number
of unemployed people in our country.
The construction sector is one of the perceived
opportunities to address the unemployment problem in
South Africa. According to the IDC, 44 000 jobs were
created in this sector during 2016. The question is: what
kind of jobs were these and how sustainable were they?
If you compare the employment numbers of our big
five construction groups, they were significantly bigger
employers (in terms of numbers) prior to 1994 compared to
today. At one particular company, a division employed nearly
four times the number of people in the 1980s than the entire
group employs today.
This is not because the groups are smaller or do less work
today than they did 30 years ago; it is because of our labour
laws and their implications for employers who want to
employ long-term staff and labour.
This is why we have a proliferation of labour brokers.
Changes arising from employment
requirements
In the construction sector, two major changes have taken place
since the introduction of these employment requirements.
Firstly, skilled operations like bricklaying and shuttering
are subcontracted to labour-only subcontractors. There is
therefore little incentive for the major construction groups
to make investments in training and development of people
with these skills.
Secondly, unskilled people are appointed on the basis
of limited-duration employment contracts. Given the
generally unfavourable trading situation in the construction
sector in the past several years, it is very likely that the
jobs that have been created (such as those reported by
the IDC mentioned above), will be limited-duration
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employment arrangements. They do nothing to address
either the real unemployment situation nor the need to
upskill construction workers and improve their attraction
as repeat and long-term employment candidates.
This is the situation at the bottom end of the skills
chain. As one climbs the skills ladder and skills levels
improve in terms of tertiary education, there are serious
deficiencies also. The truism that ‘you don’t know what
you don’t know’ applies here. The decision-makers who
decide what is an appropriate and satisfactory form
of qualification to satisfy the needs of industry and
commerce, appear not to understand what it takes to be
a competent operator in the field of construction. The
view appears to be that having a degree, or a college
diploma, is enough.
Competence in the construction sector
Those of you familiar with the work of Malcolm Gladwell’s
Outliers (a series of books on how to be successful in
business) will be familiar with his 10 000-hour rule: it
takes these many hours to master a particular skill. We
have a similar rule of thumb in the construction industry:
it takes 15 years to develop a competent engineer, quantity
surveyor, or supervisor.
Obviously, the quality of the tertiary education is
important, but it is how we help and nurture these newly
qualified recruits that is crucial. Given the time required to
develop the right level of competency, this is not something
that can happen in a couple of years. Compared to many
other industries, the construction industry is poor at
providing a structured learning and training environment to
make sure that the right lessons are learnt. Too many people
are hardwired to do things incorrectly and often apply bad
practices as a result.
We use two-day training programmes as a means of
supplying specialist skills. Mentoring programmes are also
provided under certain circumstances. In my view, this
quick-fix approach is unsatisfactory. We need more structure
to ensure that we develop competent, skilled people to
strengthen our local industry and who can compete on the
international stage.
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