Building engineering capacity for manufacturing

The exclusion of the continent from the industrial revolution stimulated by advances in manufacturing clearly demonstrate the need for African countries to build strong engineering capacity. Globalization is largely influenced by the capacity of nations and their firms to produce new and novel industrial goods and services. This capacity is to a large extent of an engineering nature. Indeed revolutionary technological, economic and related industrial opportunities will be tapped by those countries with strong engineering base.

Africa’s low and declining levels of industrialization are manifestation of its limited and in many cases qualitatively poor engineering base. The continent relies on a narrow range of economic activities mainly because it is not able to add value to its abundant natural resources through manufacturing and thus most of its countries export raw materials. Its economic change and industrial transformation will depend on the strengthening of manufacturing capacity. To achieve this, the quality of engineering education and training needs to be improved and more engineers generated.

High education institutions—universities and technical colleges—have crucial roles to play to enable Africa to build engineering capacity. They have to be at the forefront of continental engineering programmes. Ensuring that these institutions are able to recruit and retain quality staff is therefore vital to Africa’s future supply of highly skilled scientists and engineers. However, many African institutions of higher education experience problems recruiting and retaining postdoctoral researchers and lectures in engineering courses. In addition to this constraint, these institutions have weak links to industry.

African leaders and the international community have recognized and begun to put emphasis on the urgency of strengthening the continent’s engineering capacity through the revitalization of higher education institutions. The NEPAD framework document puts emphasis on the need to establish networks that are aimed at improving the quality of engineering training and increasing numbers of African engineers. The Commission for Africa calls for “specific action for strengthening science, engineering and technology capacity …. Scientific skills and knowledge enable countries to find their own solutions to their own problems, and bring about step-changes in areas from health, water supply, sanitation and energy to the new challenges of urbanization and climate change. And, critically, they unlock the potential of innovation and technology to accelerate economic growth, and enter the global economy.”

Programme Objectives

This programme will focus on revitalizing engineering training in African higher education institutions in order to increase the number and quality of engineers.

Indicative Projects and Activities

This programme will be implemented through clustered projects and activities including the ones proposed below.

Its specific goals will include:

• Improving the state/quality of infrastructure and curriculum for engineering training;
• Promoting the sharing of equipment among higher education institutions to maximum impact on improving engineering capacity;
• Strengthening inter-university networking to share training staff and research experiences; and
• Strengthening university-industry partnerships to ensure that engineering training is relevant to economic production and industrialization priorities.

Project 1: Assessment of Engineering Infrastructure and Curriculum of Higher Education Institutions

In order to determine specific interventions that are needed to improve the capacity of higher education institutions for good and relevant engineering training, it is crucial that adequate and reliable data and information on the nature and quality of existing capabilities and content of training is generated and provided to decision-makers and potential investors. This project will be designed as a capacity assessment exercise.

Specific actions will include:

• Development of a comprehensive framework and questionnaire for data gathering.
• Commissioning a competent agency or network to use the framework and questionnaire to gather data and provide a comprehensive assessment of capacities and needs to improve and increase training in specific areas of engineering.
• Organizing a workshop for for deans of engineering faculties or institutes to review the capacity assessment and design a set of interventions that are required to select a number of higher education institutions that should be considered to be designated as regional hubs and nodes. The workshop will also propose a African common curriculum for engineering training.
• A comprehensive plan and budget for infrastructure improvement in the designated hubs and nodes will be developed and submitted to African govern ments and international partners for consideration. A proposal to establish an African engineering trust fund will be considered. Such a fund may be a mechanism for ensuring that infrastructure is provided to and sustained at the hubs.

Project 2: Promoting University-Industry Partnerships for Engineering Training

Industry, including small and medium scale enterprises, has a major role to play in the building of Africa’s engineering capacity. It is a source of ideas as well as financial and technical resources for improving infrastructure, curriculum and research at higher education institutions of engineering. Industry can also be a major client of the institutions’engineering training programmes. However, in Africa the links between industry and engineering training institutions are relatively weak and absent in many cases. Improving university-industry interactions is one of the main ways of ensuring that African countries make the transition from the mere conduct of scientific research to technological innovation: the generation of specific products and processes.

This project will aim at improving the quality and intensity of university-industry partnerships for engineering.

Its specific actions or activities will include:

• Documenting international good practices or cases of university-industry links or partnerships that have promoted the strengthening of national engineering capacity and stimulated specific technological innovations. Emphasis will be placed on the kinds of policies and laws that governments (e.g. in Asia, Americas and Europe) have used to encourage university-industry links/partnerships.
• Establishing and holding an annual roundtable or conference of deans of engineering faculties, industrialists, policy-makers and business representatives. The roundtable or conference will provide a platform for exchange of views and design of concrete projects. Emphasis will be on how industry can influence the quality of engineering training programmes in order to produce graduates able to needs of industry.
• Identifying and promoting adoption of innovation policies that lead to strong university-industry partnerships.