10 Mar 2024

The Assistant Minister of Education and Skills Development, Mr Aubrey Lesaso, has lauded the Engineering Registration Board (ERB) for being intentional about building excellence into all facets of the engineering practice.

Speaking at the ongoing 4th Engineering Forum in Gaborone on Wednesday, Mr Lesaso said excellence was simply good habits cultivated over time, which ultimately become part of the fraternity’s character.

Mr Lesaso emphasised the need for ERB to be deliberate in addressing gaps and challenges that hinder optimum levels of performance and delivery.

He said key challenges in the fraternity included the disconnection between industry and academia which leads to a skills mismatch between theoretical programmes offered by institutions and actual skills needed by industry.

To redress this, he said, there should be dual training programmes which included joint curriculum development between industry and academic institutions, citing a rethink of curriculum and methods of training engineers for the digital age.

He called for the promotion of apprenticeship programmes using virtual and augmented reality applications to make training cost-effective.

Mr Lesaso said these programmes should integrate a strong mentorship component, and that organizations should provide structured post-graduation programmes to offer experiential learning and form well-rounded engineers.

Moreover, he urged professional engineers to volunteer as assessors for the ERB and as mentors in line with the Initial Development Policy (IPD) to bring actual field experience to trainee engineers.

Mr Lesaso said there was a low uptake of technology by the engineering fraternity in Botswana noting that they have not taken advantage of massive innovations that happened in the past few decades.

He challenged engineers to embrace and adopt new 4IR-integrated technologies for effective project execution.

He said there was a need for building robust engineering ecosystem through collaboration and strong synergies. This, he said, could be operationalized through an engineering hub which offered support services and manufactured machinery and consumables.

Delegates at the event also witnessed the signing of the International Engineering Alliance (IEA) roadmap by Botswana’s Engineering Registration Board and Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA) as a tool towards aligning with international best practices.

In that regard, ERB Standards Manager, Ms Clare Mosarwa, said the partnership was pivotal for aligning Botswana’s engineering standards with international benchmarks.

Ms Mosarwa said this strategic focus was aimed at enhancing the quality of engineering education and competency development among local engineers, adding that the collaboration intended to address critical issues related to the quality of engineering in Botswana.

With ECSA’s mentorship, ERB was working on developing an accreditation system that was in line with IEA standards, thereby ensuring that engineering graduates were well-prepared to meet both local and global demands.

Ms Mosarwa said initiatives to review and amend the Engineers Registration Act and other relevant legislations were ongoing. He said such efforts were crucial for empowering ERB with the mandate to accredit engineering programmes directly, thus enhancing the quality and relevance of engineering in Botswana.

She said ERB had joined the Washington Accord which underlined the IEA’s principle of mutual recognition of engineering qualifications, easing global mobility.

Top of the membership benefits include the affirmation of Botswana’s engineering education quality, aligning it with international standards.

The forum will proceed through to Friday (March 8) tackling issues of sustainable engineering solutions for a changing world and building a resilient and inclusive engineering community. ENDS