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PROFILE : My journey to Professional Registration - Innocent Gininda

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Innocent Gininda shares his journey to becoming a registered Professional Engineer (PrEng), emphasizing the importance of mentorship, early preparation, and understanding ECSA requirements. He offers advice to aspiring PrEngs, highlighting the value of diverse feedback and a positive mindset. My journey to becoming a registered Professional Engineer (PrEng) culminated successfully in November 2024. I was fortunate to begin my career at a company with a Commitment and Undertaking (C&U) Agreement with ECSA and a robust mentorship program. This commitment to training engineers to the standard required for Professional Registration provided me with essential resources and a structured path to track my experience against ECSA requirements. Early exposure to these expectations instilled a positive outlook on registration and solidified my desire to achieve this milestone. My views on Professional Registration have remained consistently positive throughout this journey. Working alongside ...
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PROFILE: My journey to Professional Registration - Mpilo Khumalo

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Professional Engineering Technologist (PrTechEng) Mpilo Khumalo recommends Professional Registration to hardhatPROFESSIONALS because he believes it feeds into many other important skills required for a successful career in the hardhatINDUSTRY.


Professional registration always seemed to me to be a daunting task, both in terms of the report and the interview. When talking to colleagues, it sounded impossible due to the negative stories I heard. However, my views changed when I started the journey, as I realized that the report and interview merely provide me with a platform to articulate my competence and engineering acumen, which develops naturally over the years if I work conscientiously. The journey has also allowed me to experience a positive change in terms of opportunities and level of responsibility.

I have observed that mentorship is a serious problem in our industry. I was fortunate to have employers who supported me, even though they were busy. I understood that if I kept knocking on their door, they would eventually make time to help me for 30 minutes or an hour. At the end of the day, it is my career, and I have to approach people or ask for help. No one else is or should be more concerned about my career than me.

Despite the challenges, I would encourage hardhatPROFESSIONALS to pursue this journey. Something good happens to you during the process that you are not aware of while it is happening. For example, your articulation of engineering problems, methods of analysis, and solutions improves significantly, which then feeds into your report writing, presentation, and general interview skills, among many other things.

I would also advise any hardhatPROFESSIONALS embarking on this journey to work diligently, consult mentors (internal and external), and try their best to attend at least one CPD training per year, even at their own cost, because I know some employers do not have the funds. Again, it is your career, and you need to drive it..


Mpilo Khumalo is a Professional Engineering Technologist (PrTech Eng) with just over a decade of experience in the civil engineering industry. He has had the pleasure of working for both construction and consulting firms, but has spent the majority of his career in the consulting space.

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