The aim of this paper is to develop a system dynamics model (SDM) for the professional engineers (PE) pipeline to ascertain the claim by the Competition Commission (CC) that the identification of engineering work (IDoEW) regulations in their current form are anti-competitive in that they are likely to reduce the quantity of the professionals practicing engineering in the market.

A SDM approach is used in this paper. The key variables and their reference modes were identified and quantitative reseach methods and techniques were used for the model development. A casual loop diagram was generated to capture factors affecting the system behaviour and a stock and flow diagram was created to identify the basic structure and relationships within the system.

The results of this study indicate that the IDoEW are found to be anticompetitive as proven by the SDM in that the supply (Engineering Council of South Africa registered PE) of persons practicing engineering is less than the demand (graduated engineers).