Allyson’s career started in consulting where she learnt to apply her theoretical knowledge in South West Africa, and South Africa, initially in concrete structures, and later focusing on mining structures. When working in the UK, she worked for a steelwork design, fabrication and construction company.
Due to her interest in computer programming she moved on to develop and market civil engineering software and introduced low-cost design, CAD and GIS solutions to the South African market. As a result of her marketing efforts her name has become synonymous with civil engineering, and she was named IT personality of the Civil Engineering Century when the South African Institution of Civil Engineering (SAICE) celebrated its centenary in 2003. Although she has sold most of her software interests, AllyCAD is still widely used in South Africa and further afield.
As a result of her interaction with students and young graduates when she was the SAICE President in 2000, she became aware of the lack of support for workplace training and predicted looming skills shortages as South Africa geared up to develop substantial infrastructure for the Soccer World Cup, and to address economic growth. She has researched and published various Numbers and Needs reports and many papers on the skills challenges. In addition, she has led many capacity-building initiatives to rebuild skills in the public sector, including the innovative use of retired engineers to coach and mentor young graduates.
She has held senior office in local and international engineering institutions and has scored several firsts for women. She became the first female president of the South African Institution of Civil Engineering in 2000. She has served on many ministerial advisory panels associated with innovation, education, skills development and service delivery, and also on various committees of the Royal Academy of Engineering (UK), aimed at developing engineering skills in sub-Saharan Africa.
Allyson was declared the Shoprite Checkers/SABC 2 Woman of the Year in Science and Technology in 2007, was recognised by the National Science and. Technology Forum (NSTF) for her ‘Contribution to Scientific, Engineering and Technological Development’ in 2008, and was awarded an honorary doctorate (DEng) by the University of Stellenbosch in 2009. She has been made a Fellow by many institutions, including the Royal Academy of Engineering in London.
Allyson Lawless has researched and written many papers, reports, training courses and books on engineering education and skills development. The expression ‘Numbers and Needs’ has become synonymous with her name as the publications discussing Numbers and Needs, initially with respect to the civil engineering profession and later all engineering disciplines, have offered direction in terms of education and skills development and have spawned many support and training initiatives nationwide and further afield.
A seminal document published in 2005 which looked at the numbers of civil engineering practitioners in South Africa and the approaches required to address future needs.
Addressing civil engineering – the critical profession for service delivery: The book published in 2007 outlined the decline in technical capacity and made many recommendations to rebuild capacity and professonalise.
Published by the Department of Higher Education and Training in 2014, the book considers the scarce skills required to deliver the Strategic Integrated Projects (SIPs) outlined in the National Infrastructure Plan.
After two years of research, this comprehensive document, completed in December 2018, found the engineering skills challenges to be similar in all SADC countries.