With a background in Development Studies, Candace has worked with an international non-profit, gaining experience in programme management and leading education initiatives that drive social impact.
Systemic Transformation of Engineering Education for Safety and Sustainability
In partnership with the University of Pretoria, supported by University College London.
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Duration
This project's duration was 5 years
Value of grant
£955,766
Partner info
The Systemic Transformation of Engineering Education for Safety and Sustainability project is led by the University of Pretoria in partnership with University College London and supported by Lloyd’s Register Foundation.
Contact details
Scaling safety and sustainability in engineering education across sub-Saharan Africa.
The Systemic Transformation of Engineering Education for Safety and Sustainability project aims to expand the work of the national South African Innovative Engineering Curriculum (IEC) initiative by scaling a tested systemic model of curriculum transformation that integrates safety and sustainability across disciplines, institutions and regions.
In response to widespread, interconnected and high-risk challenges - such as rapid urbanisation, the acceleration of tech and the impacts of climate change - there’s a high demand for engineers who understand safety as central to engineering identity, rather than as a technical competence alone. The IEC was created in 2020 and began to address these challenges by creating greater coherence across South African engineering education, where safety and sustainability where often treated as add-on competencies, rather than integrated foundations of Engineering practice.
The Systemic Transformation of Engineering Education for Safety and Sustainability project aims to scale up IEC’s five years of tested principles by strengthening the integration of safety and sustainability across engineering education in South Africa, expanding collaboration with partner institutions in Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and extending this work into additional sectors where safety is critical to professional practice.
While the project continues to support broader engineering curriculum transformation, academic development, accreditation engagement, and institutional capacity building, it includes two new flagship areas of focused innovation and collaboration:
There are two main areas of work:
- Sustainable infrastructure and safety in the built environment: This workaddress challenges in infrastructure resilience, urban safety, climate adaptation, and responsible construction. It includes structured gap-mapping, stakeholder engagement, and best-practice reviews to strengthen the integration of safety, sustainability, and leadership within built environment education and professional pathways.
- Maritime sustainability and safety: This work responds to emerging challenges within the maritime sector by strengthening maritime education and workforce development, simulation-based training, certification pathways, safety culture, and advanced safety leadership across higher education, industry, and professional training environments.
At its core, the project is founded on the belief that sustainable transformation is ultimately collaborative. While curriculum innovation, academic development, and professional partnerships provide important mechanisms for change, meaningful impact emerges when people, institutions, and sectors work together towards a shared vision for safer and more sustainable futures. By strengthening these connections across South Africa and the African region, the project seeks to build lasting capacity and create opportunities for collective action at a scale that no single organisation could achieve alone.
To learn more about the project, subscribe to our newsletter or contact our programme manager using the details below.
Over the past five years, the IEC initiative has shown that meaningful curriculum transformation is possible when institutions work collectively rather than in isolation. This next phase allows us to scale that work across sectors and regions while embedding safety and sustainability at the centre of engineering education. Safety is not only about compliance, regulations, or technical systems, but also about people, relationships, culture, and the capacity to respond responsibly in complex environments. Engineering education has a critical role to play in shaping that mindset."
Professor Lelanie Smith Associate Professor in the Faculty of Engineering, Built Environment and Information Technology (EBIT) at the University of Pretoria, and IEC lead
