Besides being the national chairman of YPF, Jana is also an associate at Stewart Scott International, Pretoria and is currently working on a R30 million pumping main project in the water sector while pursuing her Masters Degree in Project Management. “The last year at YPF has been extremely challenging and it hasn’t been easy to get things off the ground. We've had to restructure the forum in February 2006 and introduced various regional branches with a chairman for each region. Each branch chairman then attends a quarterly national committee meeting to discuss concerns,” she explains.

To get people talking across various regions is one thing, but to reach every single engineer under 35 years of age required some ingenuity on the branch Chairman’s part. “Young engineers juggle demanding jobs and with time being a scare commodity in a booming industry it is often difficult for them to dedicate a portion of their day to attend branch YPF meetings."

"We've therefore introduced initiatives like guest speakers and event marketing to incentivise members to attend gatherings. We also make provision for networking opportunities over snacks and drinks so that members can see the value added benefits of attending YPF discussions.”

“Another initiative is our partnership with industry players like Knowledge Base to help us spread the word. They have captured more than 95% of South Africa’s technikons who use AllyCAD and Civil Designer in their curriculum and they have introduced AllyCAD in high schools to help promote Engineering as a discipline. That’s right in line with the broader YPF initiative and this partnership will only grow from strength to strength,” explains Jana.

One of the current industry concerns is that South African engineers have become an ageing resource with the current average age reaching more than 55 years. “If we don’t get enough new recruits to join the industry, then we will have a real problem on our hands. It is also important for more young engineers to join the YPF network because it provides the ideal networking platform and we need to talk to each other and support each other if we are going to take the industry forward.”

Besides creating a national network, the YPF runs a Young Professional Exchange Programme between countries. “Some of the member associations such as Sweden, Japan, Australia and New Zealand have already formed their own young professional groupings, thereby creating an opportunity for a cross exchange of information and new ideas into the profession. We are also trying to get some of our Engineers who have left South Africa to return home. But in order for us to do this we have to look at the reasons why they left in the first place and one of the factors is money.”

“With the alarming fee-cutting trend, young engineers often work long hours to meet production needs because their rates are lower. Fortunately the client is still able to get good quality work but what will happen when the experienced engineers retire and there are not enough skilled engineers that enter the market? Things could become critical if the situation is not assessed in time.”

For a young engineer that only entered the working arena in 2001, Jana van der Merwe is already tackling some very real issues affecting the engineering market and she has managed to keep her feet squarely on the ground throughout the process. “The next step for YPF is to have a 're-launch' in certain regions so that people are motivated to continue their efforts despite the problems experienced. If we all pull together we can make this work and there is no better time to do it. Engineering has never been more exciting than it is at this very moment.”