A census of South African industrial engineers, based on data extracted from Linkedin

Abstract

The first South African Industrial Engineers graduated in 1963. Since then, the number of graduates per annum has grown to more than 200 per annum. Many of these Industrial Engineers use the social network, LinkedIn, to publish their professional profile and to build professional networks. The purpose of this paper is to make use of the information published on LinkedIn to determine who employs South African Industrial Engineers and which skills are attributed to them. LinkedIn-data were harvested, warehoused and analyzed of 362 persons who hold a Bachelor degree in Industrial Engineering from a South African university. In conclusion, the feasibility of this methodology is contemplated and the results of this investigation are discussed