Maihapa Ndjavera
Namibia joined the rest of the world to mark the first World Engineering Day at an event organised by the Engineering Council of Namibia (ECN). ECN as a member of the World Federation of Engineering Organisations (WFEO) participated in the inaugural World Engineering Day on Wednesday in Windhoek.
As of this year, 4 March will be recognised and celebrated as World Engineering Day across the world.
The decision to get the day officially recognised as World Engineering Day for sustainable development was adopted at a UNESCO Executive Board meeting in April 2019. Namibia’s recognition of the special day was launched by Minister of Works and Transport, John Mutorwa.
WFEO, an international organisation for the engineering profession under UNESCO, has proposed various ways of celebrating the day in respective member countries, ranging from symposiums to workshops, photo competitions, lectures and more. As a new member of WFEO, ECN organised and hosted local functions for Namibia as part of the celebration.
Mutorwa encouraged the youth to pursue education and also applauded ECN for promoting safety, health and the interest of the public in engineering work.
“Engineers are trained and educated widely and on acceptable standards. It should not matter where you are trained, but you should be able to compete internationally and not only on a national level with no question on your qualifications. I encourage the youth that education training that empowers knowledge and positive attitude towards anything is very important,” heartened Mutorwa.
As part of the commemoration, ECN officially launched its new website, consisting of a web-based information management system and corporate branding, and also awarded professional registration certificates to newly registered engineers and technicians.
President of ECN, Jaqueline Mukuka, stated that so far, the entity has registered 2 015 members of whom 1 702 are male and 313 are female. By nationality, 1 622 were registered for Namibia, 166 for South Africa, 92 for Zimbabwe, 22 for Germany and 113 for others.
In the number of registrations by discipline, civil engineering scooped the highest followed by electrical, mechanical, electronics, other, mining, chemical, and industrial engineering with 894, 462, 320, 125, 90, 62, 40, and 22 respectively.
A memorandum of understanding was also signed between ECN and the National Council on Higher Education (NCHE), which creates a strategic partnership through which the two organisations will collaborate on enhancing quality engineering education.
The event was flanked by the rank and file of the engineering community, including the four main engineering associations, namely the Association of Consulting Engineers in Namibia (ACEN), Namibian Society of Engineers (NASE), Engineering Professions Association (EPA) and Namibia Women in Engineering (NAMWIE).
ECN is a public entity, established as a statutory body and juristic person under the Engineering Profession Act 18 of 1986. This Act has, as objects, among others, to provide for the establishment of a council for the engineering profession in Namibia. For the registration of professional engineers and engineers-in-training, incorporated engineers and incorporated engineers-in-training, engineering technicians and engineering technicians-in-training, and to provide for incidental matters.
-mndjavera@nepc.com.na