The eThekwini Municipality requires the skills and knowledge of retired professional engineers and technologists. They are needed to boost capacity in the water and sanitation engineering field and to provide support to engineering mentorship programmes.
The programme is led by the eThekwini’s Water and Sanitation Unit and aims to draw from the expertise of retired engineers and technologists in the fields of civil, mechanical, electrical, and chemical engineering, Scada (Supervisory Control and Data Acquistion) and instrumentation.
Head of Water and Sanitation, Ednick Msweli, said the programme has been in place for the past five years, established in line with the eThekwini Municipality Scarce Skills Policy which allows for the employment of retired persons with scarce skills.
“Arising from the skills shortage within South Africa is a need for the municipality to draw from these engineering experts to assist with service delivery and skills transfer. The policy provides for the transfer of skills as part of the retirees’ appointment, and this has resulted in scarce skills being transferred to engineering graduates and to the betterment of the service delivery,” said Mr Msweli.
Retired engineers and technologists will be needed to provide their expertise in strategic initiatives and projects, while others will provide support to the city’s engineering mentorship programmes, strengthening service delivery and skills transfer.
Up-and-coming engineers and technologists have received mentorship in line with the Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA) requirements for professional registration. The Engineering Mentorship Programme currently has more than 50 candidate engineers and technologists. While these candidates are placed in various departments under a professional engineer/ technologist – there is a need to provide oversight, programme management, experience assessment, guidance, and coordination to these candidates until registration. Applicants must have a good understanding and working knowledge of ECSA’s registration requirements.
Applications for the programme are now open and will close at 11am on Friday August 11. The opportunity is not limited to those previously employed by the city, however, experience in local government will be advantageous. Successful applicants will be remunerated at a set rate. For more information, click here.
