More black engineers, CA's

Johannesburg - Despite huge skills shortages, transformation in the accounting and engineering sectors is progressing.

The number of black chartered accountancy candidates who qualified for the entrance exams of the SA Institute of Chartered Accountants (Saica), climbed by 77%, says Chantyl Mulder, director of transformation and growth at Saica.

Of the 2 974 candidates who wrote the first part of the qualifying exam (QE1) in 2002, only 412 (13%) were black and 145 (5%) were coloured. This year, some 895 (27%) of the candidates were black and 201 (5%) coloured.

The latest numbers should confound those who criticise the pace of transformation in the auditing profession, Mulder says.

The trend is even more pronounced under trainees and Saica membership.

In 2002, 14% of all candidate CA's were black. The number shot up to 23% last year. The percentage of black Saica members also doubled from 1.5% in 2002 to 3.6% last year.

The number of black managers in the infrastructure sector has also climbed, says Sandra Brumester, CEO of Landelahni Business Leaders.

According to the company's latest research, the percentage of black people in senior management climbed from 16.2% in 2005 to 28.8% last year.

While there was only a small rise in the number of students who qualified as engineers between 1998 and 2004, the following two years (2005 and 2006) saw a sharp increase of 1 000 graduates.

In civil engineering, some 507 students graduated in 2003, compared to 1 199 in 2006. The percentage of black students remained stable at between 70% and 75%.

The infrastructure sector's attempts to attract more students are clearly bearing fruit, says Brumester.

However, the number of registered professional engineers (14 234) in SA is still 1 000 less than ten years ago.

- Rapport