Ecsa Personal Development Plan Outline

The Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA) is the statutory body designated to regulate the engineering profession and the activities of all engineers operating within the country, in order to maintain both proficient work standards and professional conduct. This is ultimately necessary to ensure the safety and good interests of the public, whilst also ensuring the promotion of the integrity of the professional engineering community. This is accomplished through a system of registration, accreditation and regulation.
As such, all engineers intending to work are required to register with ECSA before practising. This is done in three stages:
  1. Education
      a. The engineer in question must attain education and training. This is accomplished through formal means of study, such as a BEng, BSc(Eng) or a BTech from an accredited education institution.
  2. Candidate Engineer
      b. An engineering graduate must then apply to ECSA for the status of candidate engineer, where the engineer must perform complex engineering activities under the supervision of a professional engineer. This aims to provide the candidate engineer with experience in the field under the ‘safety-net’ of an accomplished engineer.
  3. Professional Engineer
      c. After a minimum of three years as a candidate, the engineer may present the work accomplished to ECSA for endorsement. If the work done is considered sufficiently complex, varied and appropriate to the field, the candidate is promoted to the level of Professional Engineer, where they may practice independently of a supervisor.
Although still in the education section of the process, it is of value to make sufficient preparations for the inevitable future in the form of a personal development plan. Hereafter contains a broad outline of some realistic goals and means to achieve such. (Kruger, 2015)

Phase One: Graduation July 2016 – December 2016
The first step towards becoming an engineering professional is to...