SANRAL has increased its contract participation goals for the youth.

The Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) statistics indicates that out of 33 270 Civil Engineering registered enterprises, 10 112 (30.39%) are youth owned.

“We have presented revised contract participation goals (CPGs) to our Board of Directors in order to increase the participation of youth labour and youth-owned business on all SANRAL contracts.  The revised CPGs will be applied to all contracts whether major, routine road maintenance (RRM), or community development (CD) projects,” says Vusi Mona, spokesperson for the roads agency.

The new CPGs for major and RRM projects require that 20% of small-, medium- and micro-enterprises (SMMEs) sub-contracted to SANRAL projects must be youth-owned, while 40% of SMMEs on Community Development projects must be youth-owned.

As for the youth labour component, 30% of the labour CPGs for major and RRM projects must be allocated to the youth, while 40% of the labour CPGs for CD projects must be allocated to the youth.

 

Youth programmes

In addition to this, SANRAL has a number of youth programmes that encourage the youth to pursue careers in the engineering industry.

These programmes expose students and graduates to the workplace (in-service training) where they acquire the experience, competencies and proficiencies required in order to adhere to the stringent standards to register as professional engineers.

“At SANRAL we are passionate and committed towards development and training.  We provide intensive in-service training programmes to ensure that our graduates are competent and at the top of their respective divisions. We provide guaranteed exposure to a broad variety of disciplines in the civil engineering and built environment,” says Mona.

The in-service training programmes are carried out under the guidance of engineering mentors who assist graduates to perform to their full potential.