Factors Contributing to the Loss of

Abstract

South Africa has been experiencing a shortage of qualified resources since the early nineties, particularly in the skilled and professional sector. This study explores the loss of engineers from the profession within the context of South Africa. It probes the contributing factors that influence engineers to emigrate to other countries. It also explores career migration as another loss to the profession as many of the registered engineers leave the engineering profession for other professions. A discriminant analysis function was developed to distinguish among three mutually exclusive groups: those who are content with their current situation, those who consider emigration or career change and those that have left the country or changed careers. The data for this analysis was gathered through a survey that was sent to all registered professional engineers at the Engineering Council of South Africa. The key findings of this research were that the classification of engineers in the group that is content with their current situation can be predicted with confidence, those who consider with less and those that have left, a mere guess. The contributing factors for emigration and career migration have been substantiated through this research.