Nurturing specialised engineering skills for the business, the consulting sector and the broader local economy has become a strategic function for SLR Consulting.

According to Thembi Montsho, Regional HR Business Partner at SLR Consulting, the company is investing in graduate development, mentoring and management capability to address the engineering sector’s skills pipeline.

“The scarcity of specialist engineering skills is placing increasing pressure on consulting businesses to develop their own technical capability,” Montsho says. “It is no longer possible to rely on recruiting experienced professionals from an already limited pool.”

This has made skills development a strategic business priority, extending from university bursaries and graduate programmes to mentoring and leadership development. By supporting students through their university studies and augmenting this learning with vacation work, SLR Consulting paves the way for graduates to enter its Early Careers Development Programme.

“This addresses the important gap between academic qualifications and the practical demands of consulting,” she explains. “Our 12-month programme currently supports between 18 and 25 people annually in South Africa, combining internal on-the-job development with external training and career guidance.”

SLR Consulting views this investment as contributing to the wider engineering and environmental skills base, rather than solely as a recruitment mechanism. Where the business cannot accommodate all its graduates, it helps place as many as possible so they can gain further industry experience – in some cases with clients.

“This approach ensures we help grow the pipeline in the industry,” Montsho says. “These skills are vital to the country and the industries we serve, so it is important to keep nurturing them.”

The skills development challenge does not end once young engineers have developed technical competence. As specialists progress, they are increasingly expected to manage projects, teams and client relationships – responsibilities for which technical expertise alone may not provide adequate preparation.

SLR Consulting has therefore introduced an Emerging Managers Programme to address a gap identified among technically strong professionals moving into management.

“We have many technical people coming from an engineering or environmental sciences background,” Montsho explains. “As they grow within the business, they are increasingly expected to lead people.”

The programme develops people management and performance management skills, as well as expertise in employee support. Mentoring and knowledge transfer provide another important link between experienced specialists and the next generation.

SLR Consulting currently has structured mentoring within its Early Careers Programme and is working towards a more formal approach that can also support junior consultants and emerging managers.

“All our efforts are working towards making sure that skills development is sustainable – providing a measurable return on investment in terms of growing the consulting skills within the industry and within the business,” Montsho says.

She highlights that key economic sectors rely on engineering consultants for technical insights based on scarce specialist expertise. This demands a level of experience developed over decades rather than years.

“The future capability of engineering consultancies depends not only on finding skilled professionals, but on deliberately growing them,” she concludes.