Unlocking the development of built environment professionals through infrastructure investment in South Africa

spending is regarded to be one of the major contributors to economic growth. The purpose of the study was to investigate how infrastructure projects could engender professional skills development. The topic is focused on a human resource (HR) perspective as it is one of the knowledge areas in project management. In order to achieve the research objectives and also establish the breadth of the subject issues in the literature review, a qualitative methodology was employed. Interviews were conducted and the majority of the participants were working towards professional registration in the built environment professions. The empirical findings that emerged from the study show that the majority of the respondents agreed that HR units should be aware of the legislation related to professional training and education. The interviewees further elucidate that, although professional registration is the primary duty of the candidate, HR units should ensure that interns are doing what is in line with their professional requirements, according to different councils, to ensure compliance. However, the lack of a structured approach in administering training programmes is a key factor that contributes to the lack of development of professional skills on government sponsored infrastructure projects. This must be addressed to attain the desired professional development outcomes among historically disadvantaged individuals (HDIs) that are keen on professional registration and development in the built environment professions. Other empirical findings showed that most of the respondents showed some concern regarding job security with their present employment. They explained that once the status of professional registration is attained, securing employment in the industry should be relatively easy. South Africa needs a highly skilled workforce to ensure growth of the economy therefore HR departments in organisation should adapt a systematic approach in their HR planning in order to ensure skills are engendered to HDIs as well.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:nmmu/vital:9673
Date January 2013
CreatorsMputa, Nobutyani Sinethemba
PublisherNelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Faculty of Engineering, the Built Environment and Information Technology
Source SetsSouth African National ETD Portal
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis, Masters, MSc
Formatxiii, 108 leaves, pdf
RightsNelson Mandela Metropolitan University

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