For young South African graduates learning their professions in the workplace, the COVID-19 lockdown has been a serious setback to their experiential learning.
While the country is hopefully soon to work its way to lockdown levels two and one, the restrictions on interaction with colleagues and practical site visits will continue to make mentoring difficult. It is also evident that COVID-19 will be constraining our working habits for some time, particularly where mentors are in higher risk groups.
Working remotely is likely to become more common among professionals. It is much easier, though, for an experienced engineer to apply their existing knowledge from a remote location, than it is for a young graduate to learn how to do something new from a distance.
