The Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN) has commended the National Council on Works and Housing for including engineering students attaches in all federal projects.
Mr Ali Rabiu, President of the council, gave the commendation during an interactive session with reporters covering the building sector in Abuja on Monday.
Rabiu said that all government contracts should be seen as training points for students to learn on the job.
According to him, it is on this basis that the council set up the Outcome-Based Education (OBE).
NAN reports that the OBE is a quality assurance test carried out on graduating engineering students to ensure they have been equipped with the right skills and be competitive anywhere in the world.
“COREN is engaging stakeholders to ensure effective implementation and ownership of the programme.
“We are changing from the traditional way of doing things to this outcome-based system,’’ Rabiu said.
He explained that the council had paid a sensitisation visit to the Minister of Education on the need to key into the programme.
The president added that the minister had directed that a committee be set up on this.
According to him, before now engineering students find it difficult to get placement for industrial training.
He said that the council had been working toward this development over the years.
He also said that the council had registered no fewer than 4,509 new engineering personnel in spite of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The figure comprised of 3,796 engineers, 622 engineering technologists, 29 technicians and 62 craftsmen.
Rabiu also said that the National Association of Engineering Craftsmen recently inducted 300 craftsmen into its body.
According to him, the engineering family is working to reverse the abnormality of the engineering pyramid to move craftsmen to the top of the pyramid.
Speaking on building collapse, the council president said that most of the infrastructure failures were occasioned by activities of quacks.
He added that the amended COREN Act of 2018 had given the council the powers to investigate and prosecute anyone found culpable.
The council, he said, had concluded investigation on six out of eight cases of building collapse, noting that no registered COREN member was involved in any of the cases.
In his remarks, the Registrar of the council, Prof. Joseph Odigure called on the government to engage indigenous engineers in federal projects.
Odigure reiterated the need for the implementation of the Executive Order 5, saying “that is why the council is engaging all stakeholders’’ to key into it.
He said that all government contracts should be seen as a training ground to build local capacity.
“If we continue to give contracts to expatriates, we will have no component of practical training for our people.
Training is the component part of government responsibility,’’ the registrar said. (NAN)
