Business Report writes that the SA Institute of Civil Engineering (Saice), one of the biggest voluntary professional organisations in the country with 12,000 members, indicated on Monday that it had lost 1.73% of its members to emigration in the past three years.
Most of these engineers had sought greener pastures and opportunities and were between the ages of 30 and 60, Saice said in a statement. Acting chief executive Steven Kaplan noted that the infrastructure sector was in a slump, with consulting firms retrenching technical staff and even shutting down due to lack of work. This was forcing qualified professionals into unemployment with the result that they were seeking employment in foreign lands, and taking their skills with them. “The brain drain is devastating. It costs the country a lot of money and resources to produce world-class engineers to lose them because they can't find work in a country where they're needed the most is a travesty,” he stated. Kaplan added that the government needed to make strides to attract South African engineers back to the country, and back into the government sector where they were most needed.
- Read the full original of Edward West’s report in the above regard at Business Report
- Read too, SA’s brain drain is picking up speed, at The Citizen
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page