collepoa

high on demand, but poor pay for engineers

The construction boom is soaking hundreds of engineering graduates, with the government’s country-wide infrastructure upgrade providing the bulk of the jobs. The Government, mainly through its public works corporations, is currently hiring graduate engineers to work in construction projects in roads, water & sewerage and housing.

The private sector is also contributing to the high demand of engineers as the construction wave continues on its upward trend.

However, our institutions of higher learning are unable to keep up with the demand, as engineering classes and facilities are stretched to the limit.

The civil engineering department at the University of Nairobi, for instance, usually admits 60 – 70 students from the government joints admission board (JAB) every year.

But the department gets more than 200 applications under the privately sponsored programme.

“We can only take a maximum of 100 self sponsored students and these are students with high scores in KCSE,” says Prof. S. Mwea, chair of the civil engineering department.

In total there are 546 first year engineering students compared to 509 second year students at the University. Although male students constitute more than 90 percent of engineering students, more female students are slowly starting to show interest and apply for this male-dominated course.

Government-sponsored students pay a subsidized tuition of Sh16,000, while self-sponsored students pay Sh180,000 per year for a degree course.

Apart from the capacity, learning institutions, especially universities, are increasingly coming under scrutiny for producing graduates with inadequate practical skills. Education experts and employers are split on the balance between practical and theoretical emphasis in engineering courses.

In general, polytechnics put more emphasis on the practical part of engineering, while universities tend to lean towards theories and concepts.

Proposed Bill

In view of the recent high rate of collapsed buildings, the Cabinet recently approved the Engineers bill. Sub-standard workmanship and lax supervision by concerned authorities has been cited as the main reason for the incidents that has claimed lives and millions of property lost.

The Institution of Engineers of Kenya (IEK) absolves its members and blames contractors and clients for flouting rules and regulations.

“Clients want to cut costs by hiring unqualified people and some contractors don’t engage services of qualified engineers,” says Engineer Mwamzali Shiribwa, the secretary of the institution.

IEK is a professional association that looks after the welfare of engineers and the development of the profession while the Engineers Regulation Board of Kenya (ERBK) is a government body established by an act of parliament tasked with regulating the profession.

Engineers apply the principles of science and mathematics to develop cost-effective solutions to technical problems. They are responsible for the design, construction, manufacturing, managing and supervision of engineering works.

“One big misconception is that engineers do the actual construction. Our work is to conceptualize and supervise to ensure construction is done according to the plans,” clarifies Eng. Shiribwa

Better pay

Under the Public Service Commission (PSC) guidelines, graduate engineers enter the civil service at job group ‘K’ level, which pays a basic salary of between Sh26,000 – 32,000.

When the bill passes, Engineers fees will be set by ERBK so that the professionals can be paid what they are worth. As it is, they are paid below their market value. As Lemmy Nyongesa, an Architect points out in a Daily Nation commentary, the government ought to compensate engineers above what the private offers.

“The government embarked on recruiting fresh graduate architects, offering them pay and benefits more attractive than what the private sector offered. This led to a shortage in the private sector and employers had to pay more to retain their staff,” says Lemmy.

Prof. Mwea says engineers are usually the first people to benefit when an economy is expanding and a lot of investment is being poured in infrastructure. “But we are usually the first to suffer loss when the economy slows down because very few people build during these times.”

In Kenya, Students can choose to specialize in electrical, mechanical, environmental, geospatial and space and telecommunications engineering. There are also other fields of engineering including aeronautical, agricultural, bioengineering, automotive, nuclear and other specializations. Graduate students have to work for a firm or under a registered engineer for at least two years to get the practical skills needed in the profession.