Masakhe 02_DIGITAL PAPERTURN - Flipbook - Page 68
their undergraduate degrees,
achieving high marks and winning
multiple awards for their academic
performance. Both Khaya and
Khali had certain expectations
for their undergraduate degrees,
which focused on construction.
The profession comes with many
preconceived ideas, and many
people believe that construction is
merely the process of laying bricks,
but it’s much more than that. It
includes things like planning, people
management, and other vital soft
skills that aren’t typically associated
with construction. “As we were going
through undergraduate, we enjoyed
seeing the final product of all the
hard work you’ve been putting into
a project. In the end, it becomes a
physical structure,” says Khali.
This is what led to the twins
eventually deciding to pursue
Honours degrees in Quantity
Surveying, yet another profession
that is quite misunderstood. “A lot
of people say we just count bricks,”
says Khaya. “It’s way more than that.
I’d say it’s like the financial advisor of
the built environment.” In this way,
quantity surveying involves a plethora
of other skills that are not typically
associated with construction and
finance. The experienced quantity
surveyor, or QS, will be involved in
every part of a project’s lifecycle,
from the beginning planning stages
until the final product is realised. In
many ways, people management is
the foremost responsibility that a QS
will be faced with.
For example, even before a
building is designed, a QS would offer
ISSUE 2
advice regarding the feasibility of
the project, and they pose important
questions to clients and architects
and builders alike: Will the contractor
be able to cover all the costs until the
end of the project’s lifecycle? Is the
design going to meet its end-user
objectives?
So, while quantity surveying must
be scientific and accurate, a large part
of the profession involves mediating
client-contractor relationships to
ensure a smooth building process.
The CEM department also ensures
that students like Khaya and Khali
have a well-rounded education that
prepares them for the workplace.
One of the Honours courses is called
Professional Practice, where the
students have to collaborate with
the architecture class to simulate
an office environment. The QS
students are required to start their
own firms, and they learn through
firsthand experience what it takes
to open and maintain a business.
“This course introduced us to both
the technical as well as the soft
skills that one needs to succeed,”
says Khali. Something unique about
the CEM department at UCT is that
there is a lot of cross-pollination
between different disciplines. Many
of their first years do courses in
engineering and economics, as well
“MANY PEOPLE THINK
OF US AS ONE PERSON,
INSTEAD OF THINKING
ABOUT US AS SEPARATE
PEOPLE.”
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