South Africa needs more engineers — and more women must be supported into the profession - IOL

Nokuthula Siqbengu is Executive: Business Development & Marketing at the Ikusasa Student Financial Aid Programme Foundation NPC.

South Africa's engineering skills shortage is clearly evidenced as the country is estimated to require an additional 60 000 engineers to support infrastructure development, industrial growth, and innovation.

At the same time, women remain significantly underrepresented in the profession, accounting for only around 16% of registered engineering professionals, despite gradual progress in STEM education.

These two realities are closely connected.

South Africa cannot afford to overlook half of its potential engineering talent while simultaneously grappling with a shortage of critical technical skills. The conversation around gender parity in engineering should, therefore, move beyond access alone and focus on what enables women to complete demanding qualifications and build long-term careers in the profession.

For many years, the response has been relatively consistent: encourage more girls to study mathematics and science, provide bursaries, and inspire young women to pursue engineering careers.

These initiatives have opened important doors and should continue. But access to higher education is only the beginning of the journey. The more important question is what happens once students arrive on campus.

Engineering remains one of South Africa's most demanding university qualifications. Many students require extended curricula, turning four-year degrees into five-year programmes to ensure academic success.

While these pathways improve completion rates, they also increase the financial investment required from both bursary providers and students.

More importantly, they highlight a broader reality: funding tuition alone is rarely enough to ensure success.

Through its work supporting poor and “missing middle” students, the Ikusasa Student Financial Aid Programme (ISFAP) has seen that student success depends on a combination of financial assistance, academic readiness, mentoring, and psychosocial support.

These interventions are particularly important in demanding disciplines such as engineering, where the academic workload, pace, and pressure can be significant.

Supporting students through these challenges is not simply about improving individual outcomes. It is about protecting South Africa's investment in scarce skills. This is particularly relevant for women entering engineering.

While women are increasingly participating in STEM education, they remain underrepresented within the profession itself.

The Department of Higher Education and Training data suggest that participation in engineering studies has become more balanced over time, yet women still comprise only a small proportion of registered engineering professionals.

This suggests that expanding access alone will not close the gender gap. Greater attention must also be paid to supporting students throughout their educational journey and into the profession. Career guidance forms an important part of that journey.

Many learners choose engineering because of its reputation as a respected and secure profession, without fully understanding the academic demands of the qualification or whether it aligns with their strengths and interests.

Better diagnostic assessments and career guidance at school level could help learners make more informed choices before enrolling in costly and demanding STEM programmes.

This is not about limiting opportunity; rather, it is about improving the likelihood that students enter programmes where they are most likely to thrive.

Equally important is recognising that academic success depends on more than intellectual ability. Confidence, resilience, belonging and access to appropriate support services all influence whether students complete demanding qualifications.

Mentoring, counselling, academic development, and peer support should, therefore, be viewed as essential components of student success rather than optional additions to a bursary.

ISFAP's experience has consistently shown that wraparound support strengthens student outcomes. By combining financial aid with structured academic and psychosocial support, bursary programmes can improve retention and graduation while helping students develop the confidence needed to transition successfully into the workplace.

South Africa's engineering shortage is not simply a workforce challenge; it is a national development challenge. Every additional engineer who graduates strengthens the country's capacity to build infrastructure, support industrial growth, and drive innovation.

Ensuring that more women succeed in engineering is, therefore, not only a matter of representation, but of expanding the country's technical capability.

Closing the gender gap in engineering will require collaboration across the education ecosystem. Schools, universities, funders, employers, and professional bodies all have a role to play in strengthening the pipeline from classroom to career.

Scholarships remain an essential starting point, but if South Africa is serious about building a more inclusive engineering profession while addressing its scarce-skills shortage, we must invest in the full student journey.

Financial aid opens the door, while mentoring, academic support, career guidance, and psychosocial well-being help students walk through it and ultimately into the engineering workforce our country needs.

Nokuthula Siqbengu is Executive: Business Development & Marketing at the Ikusasa Student Financial Aid Programme Foundation NPC.