Mentor of the Year
WINNER RECOGNITION
Pierre Cronje Naidu Consulting Pierre has provided mentorship to young
challenge through an intake of four to
engineers, emerging contractors and
six undergraduates on an annual basis.
participants working on construction
Undergraduates rotate between all divisions
projects, and recently co-developed
within the organisation, with Pierre leading
Naidu Consulting’s Academy of Excellence
their practical training and experience.
P
Programme – the pre-preparation
including more than 15 years as a project
them to understand the profession and
leader for the National Roads Agency.
make informed decisions regarding their
ierre Cronje is a resident
mentor a large contingent of postgraduate
before they enter the mainstream industry.
engineers, Pierre has taken mentorship to
Engineering mentorship has traditionally
engineer for Naidu Consulting
spoken to the structured training of
with a track record spanning
graduates. However, the steering of
more than 54 years. His skills
future engineers – even before they
and experience cover diverse areas within
graduate – through practical structured
the civil and structural engineering fields,
learning programmes better equips
While many engineers are reluctant to
recognised the value of this component
Pierre has, on the contrary, looked to share
and mandate a period of practical work
his valuable experience with as many people
where undergraduates work in industry.
as possible. He has capacitated himself
Unfortunately, such undergraduates
through training courses and registering
are often exposed to a fragment of
as a mentor to be able guide the future
engineering work, creating an impact,
leaders of our country. Pierre has also written
albeit to a limited extent.
numerous projects he’s undertaken.
another level by inspiring undergraduates to succeed and excel in their future.
future careers. Universities have long
invest time in sharing their knowledge,
papers on capacitating people through the
While Naidu Consulting continues to
programme for undergraduate technicians
The Academy of Excellence Programme was established to address this
C E S A A o n E n g i n e e r i n g E x c e l l e n c e Aw a r d s 2 0 2 0
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