CESA Aon 2019

MENTORING COMPANY OF THE YEAR: KNIGHT PIÉSOLD & ZITHOLELE CONSULTING

WINNER

FINALIST

K night Piésold has differentiated itself from the market through redefining what it means to be a mentoring company; pledging to its staff with pur- pose, taking on the challenge and changing the lives of its staff and the industry. A strong mentorship programme creates a supportive, en- abling environment which encourages professional registration, and furthers technical career development, business maturity and personal development, all of which align towards achieving business excellence. The firm has developed a formal and struc- tured approach to mentoring which ultimately contributes to the development of better trained and engaged employees. It also assists the firm in maintaining a highly qualified, experienced and stable workforce. As part of its Talent Management framework, Knight Piésold has a formalised Mentorship and Coaching Programme for ECSA Professional Registration: The Candidacy Programme. This structured programme, plus three other generalised mentoring programmes, which all form part of the company’s Workplace Development Plan for employees, contribute to effective mentor- ing at Knight Piésold. As a mentoring company, Knight Piésold has targeted not just its staff but also its industry. Its programmes transform the lives of school learners through its School’s Mentoring Programme, university graduates through its Student Mentoring Programme, candidate engineering employees through its Candidacy programme, senior professional staff through its Emerging Leaders Programme, and includes mentorship of non- technical employees. z

Z itholele Consulting, based in Midrand Gauteng, offers Specialist Consulting Services in the fields of Engineering, Environmental Management, Waste Management and Strategic Communication. The company believes that compassion is the founda- tion of good ethics and accordingly mentors its young engineers to be good people before training them to be good engineers. Zitholele Consulting has, since its establishment in 2003, implemented various mentoring and training programmes aimed at internal and external client candidate personnel, with the ultimate goal of equipping young engineers with the knowledge and tools to achieve professional registration through valuable experience. The company has implemented a scheme of training engineers from client bodies. Numerous engineers from key clients have been seconded to Zitholele for training. They have been placed in design teams and given adequate training to allow them to apply for professional registration before being placed back in the client organisation. It has also participated in the Development Bank of South Africa’s (DBSA) initiative to train technicians for placement in local municipalities and has adopted a training policy of giving internships to graduate technicians and engineers on a yearly basis for a period of one year. Zitholele Consulting has registered a ‘Commitment and Under- taking’ with the Engineering Council of South Africa and has all of its professional staff registered as mentors with ECSA. Both directors of Zitholele, one a former CESA Mentor of the Year, are actively involved in the mentorship programme. z

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CESA AON ENGINEERING EXCELLENCE AWARDS 2019