June 5, 2017, Johannesburg, South Africa – Knight Piésold South Africa hosted more than 40 grades 9 to 11 students at its Durban, Cape Town, and Rivonia offices for the annual Engineering Job Shadowing Initiative. Consulting Engineers South Africa (CESA) and its Young Professionals Forum invited engineering consultants to partake in this initiative and celebrate with them, on May 2 to July 31, for 10 years of unearthing the country’s future engineers.

CESA’s initiative aims to showcase the engineering profession, particularly consulting engineering as an exciting career option. Students get to experience a day in the life of a consulting engineer—opening their minds to possibilities and opportunities in this field.

Thirty students from the MH Joosub Technical Secondary School in Lenasia visited the Rivonia office on May 30, starting the day off with breakfast and a presentation about the broader engineering profession. After the presentation, six of Knight Piésold’s young engineers teamed up with groups of students to lead and mentor on various exercises from bridge building to an egg drop experiment.

The students then went on a field trip to Johannesburg Water’s Northern Wastewater Treatment Works, where the company’s onsite engineer gave them a hands-on tour and explained the inner workings of being a civil engineer in the wastewater division, as well as the operations of a wastewater treatment plant. The plant is designed to treat 400 million litres of wastewater every day for approximately 1.6 million people. Knight Piésold has made regular upgrades and improvements to this plant since 1992, having been responsible for the development of Units 4 and 5.

The field trip gave the students a platform to ask questions and obtain an in-depth understanding of engineering. The day’s program inspired and motivated the high school students to the extent that they are now considering a career in engineering.