Low quality of African engineers disconcerting – UNESCO

African countries have been urged to professionalise their university engineering education systems as one way of enhancing capacity building and of producing competent engineers who would boost the quality of life on the continent and create opportunities for sustainable economic development.

The call was made by UNESCO in its second engineering report, Engineering for Sustainable Development: Delivering on the Sustainable Development Goals, published on 4 March 2021.

According to the report, Africa continues to have the lowest number of engineering professionals per capita of all regions of the world.

More worrying is the finding that the quality of engineers in most countries is low and there are no indications that the situation is likely to improve soon. The report points out that, without high-quality engineers, development in key sectors such as agriculture, energy, mining, water and disaster reduction could remain stagnant for decades.

On the other hand, countries that have enough quality engineers also have quality infrastructure, high job creation and significant economic growth.

Smart engineering technologies

With poor quality engineering education offered in most African universities, the report emphasised, Africa might also miss out on gains that could arise from artificial intelligence, big data ecosystems and the development of smart cities.

Taking into account that smart engineering technologies and applications have the capacity to change the nature and economics of infrastructure, UNESCO urged African countries to not just increase the number of engineering graduates, but to focus on how higher engineering education can meet the requirements for new engineering competencies.

“Engineering education is changing from its traditional focus on disciplinary technical knowledge to a much broader interdisciplinary and complex problem-solving approach that integrates societal problem analyses with academic technical knowledge and solutions,” the report reads.

Proper accreditation and registration

Advising countries globally on how to get engineering skills right, the report highlighted the importance of proper accreditation of universities offering engineering programmes, while graduates should strive for registration.

“The quality of engineering graduates is ensured through the accreditation of institutions mandated either by national governments or professional engineering institutions.”

UNESCO emphasised the importance of continuing professional development and competency of engineers that is usually guaranteed through training provided by professional engineering institutions that award professional credentials such as that of ‘chartered’ engineer.

Unfortunately in Africa, the understanding and alignment of engineering standards and the quality of engineering graduates in terms of international standards remain questionable.

“Presently, only South Africa is a signatory to the International Engineering Alliance for both educational and mobility agreements.”

Some African countries have no national registration bodies, nor do they have professional institutions that would cater for engineers’ professional development.

What this means is that many engineering graduates from Africa may not be able to get work as professional engineers in many parts of the world and could possibly find jobs only as technicians or technologists, despite their engineering degrees.

For instance in 2019, only 30% (34,722) out of 114,575 engineers in 16 countries that are members of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) were registered.

Quoting the study titled Engineering Numbers and Needs in the SADC Region that was presented during the UNESCO sixth Africa Engineering Week and fourth Africa Engineering Conference in Livingstone, Zambia, in September 2019, the report noted that expanding high-quality engineering capacity should become a priority, not just for the SADC region, but for the continent.

Lack of comprehensive data

The environment for effective engineering in Africa is made more complicated, not merely by low numbers of engineering professionals, but also a lack of comprehensive data.

According to Dr Allyson Lawless, the South African structural engineer who presented the keynote address in Livingstone, the quality of engineers in Africa is impacted by early schooling challenges that relate to a lack of teachers and learning resources, and sub-standard mathematics and science passes at basic education levels.

“University education in most countries is also under-resourced, resulting in low-quality graduates, while there is almost no investment made in postgraduate training in engineering,” Lawless said.

Other challenges are related to varying standards of and approaches to setting up registration bodies and professional institutions, and a lack of investment to support the growing number of engineers.

In its raft of recommendations about how Africa can improve its engineering education environment, UNESCO says that, although most African governments have accelerated narratives of self-realisation and sovereignty, there is an urgent need to invest more in engineering and upgrade training institutions.

UNESCO views quality education and training in engineering as keys to achieving the United Nations’ sustainable goals for Africa. “Quality engineering education and improved standards will create good jobs and economic growth,” the report reads.

Amid efforts to bring African engineering into the global orbit, UNESCO notes there is a need to support efforts of the Federation of African Engineering Organisations (FAEO) to unify the profession.

Towards this goal, policy development is required for governments to assign a legal basis and resources, aligning certification and accreditation with continental and world standards, as well as to sustain the mobility of engineers throughout the continent.

African countries are also advised to take urgent action to increase the number of engineers in line with Africa’s needs and to close the engineering gender gap.

The second UNESCO report on engineering appears to be a wake-up call for African countries and their universities to ask themselves what kind of engineers they are producing.

The report is clear that the current crop of African engineers is too small and most are not capable of solving some of Africa’s pressing challenges.

This includes solutions to modern urbanisation, infrastructure, artificial intelligence, agricultural development, energy security, environmental degradation, natural disasters and employment creation.

According to Audrey Azoulay, director general of UNESCO, the report was produced in collaboration with the Chinese Academy of Engineering, Tsinghua University, the International Centre for Engineering Education and the World Federation of Engineering Organizations.