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IN THE BEGINING
The Young Professionals Forum (YPF) is an initiative that was started nationally by the South African Association of Consulting Engineers (SAACE) in 2004. The Western Cape branch was inaugurated in November 2005 and has grown to include more 180 members from 35 different companies.
The YPF was formed as SAACE and its member firms realised the need to prepare young professionals (YPs) to fill the identified skills gap and to investigate how to retain young engineers to keep pace with the expected economic growth and infrastructure demands of the country over the coming years.
A very successful YPF was included at the FIDIC conference in 2003 and 2004 and similar forums have been established in Japan, Australia, New Zealand and Sweden. The South African YPF was based on these forums.
The YPF consists of a few regional committees coordinated by a national committee. The national committee provides a direct link to SAACE and has representation on the main SAACE council.
As a regional committee, the Western Cape (WC) branch strives to act as a medium through which YPs are able to voice their views, opinions and concerns and to consolidate and communicate these views, opinions and concerns to the relevant parties.
The YPF...