“A Day in the life of a Consulting Engineer”

A work experience day, aligned with the CESA National Job Shadow Initiative, was organised on 24 July 2014 at Bosch Holdings Head Office in Durban. Bosch Stemele, Bosch Projects, Bosch Ulwazi and Bosch Munitech hosted the event which informed scholars about the multi‑disciplinary Consulting Engineering industry.

An invitation was extended to interested Grade 10 and 11 scholars from 11 schools in the Durban area and a total of 42 scholars attended, 22 of whom were girls.

Raj Ramchuran (Regional Director of Bosch Stemele) started proceedings by giving an overview of the Bosch Holding group of companies and Engineering in general.

Tertia Reid (Bosch Ulwazi) spoke about the educational and training requirements and explained different routes of studying Engineering, i.e. Engineers, Technologist or Technicians.

Bradley Welch (Bosch Projects), introduced the varied aspects of Mechanical Engineering, followed by Manditha Beeharilal (Bosch Stemele) who introduced Civil Engineering, mentioning specialist fields and covering the range of “potential” employers in this sector.

Tony Robson (Bosch Projects) covered aspects of Electrical Engineering and the morning’s presentations were ended by Steve McCarley (Bosch Munitech) introducing scholars to the workings of Bosch Munitech and how they assisted with maintenance and operations in projects/contracts.

Thereafter the scholars were treated to a site visit by bus to the Phoenix Waste Water Treatment Works, where they were taken on a guided tour of the Works by Jason Holder and Richard Blakeway, showing the operation of the Works as well as the construction of new Works. The most impressive being the size and rotation of the Archimedes Screws and the incredible power displayed at the aeration tanks.

The day concluded back at Bosch Holdings’ offices with a brief question and answer session, some fun questions and beautiful prizes, pizza’s for lunch and each scholar was handed a Certificate of Attendance.