Honeywell Process Solutions recently hosted a panel debate on the shortage of engineering skills. Held during its 2011 Users’ Group Conference (HUG) for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), the panellists and audience debated numerous causes and solutions for the problem, including: gender disparity, age, government intervention, corporate training programmes, quality of education, and motivation of young people into the field of engineering.
The full debate can be viewed online (video or audio podcast) at http://instrumentation.co.za/+c16219c.
Some highlights from the debate include:
Alberto Leni (Saipiem)
Reacting to the relatively low percentage of women present in the audience (with no women represented on the panel), Leni said, “In southern Europe, things are improving. When I began in the mid '90s I estimate that only 1-2% of engineers were female. Now things are a little bit better … we have 7-8% female engineers.
Neil Stander
Is our tertiary education of engineers correct? Is there enough practical during the initial stages of their training to get them up to speed quicker?
Ahmed Abdullah (GPIC)
On the subject of age, “In the Arab Gulf countries approximately 40% of our engineers are expatriates from Europe, mainly from Asia, India and so on. Of the expatriates, 80% of them are aged above 48. With the local engineers, the majority are aged between 30 and 40.
Helen Tunnicliffe (TCE)
On the subject of whose responsibility it is to attract more students to the subject of engineering?: “Why are the engineering firms so reluctant to take on graduates to train them up? Other professions do not have that problem. If you take the law profession, the big firms will take people on and train them. Accountancy is another. These professions readily accept that that is going to happen… they accept that the movement of graduates and younger employees is quite fluid. Why do engineering firms not accept this?”
Mohammed Saleh (ZADCO)
“I was attracted to engineering first of all because I liked engineering. Then the oil companies in Abu Dhabi sponsored high school students (like myself) to attract them to the engineering discipline. They pay for our tuition fees. Of course in return for that we have to work for a couple of years. That approach will help solve the problem.
Ursula Kok (BP Belgium)
“As part of my job as an engineer, I am also a schooling co-ordinator. I go to primary and secondary schools to promote to them, what it means to be an engineer.
“I usually start the session with the kids by asking them, “Do you know what a doctor does?” They can always answer correctly. “Do you know what a journalist does?” Also, no problem answering. Do you know what somebody in a bank does? They can answer that too.
“But as soon as I ask them “What does an engineer do? I usually get answers such as: ‘They fix engines’ or ‘They change light bulbs.’ The children and young-adults just do not have a clue what engineering is about. Many of these ‘kids’ are just a few years away from applying for a place in a university.
“Young people are not attracted to engineering simply because they do not know what engineering is. I think the industry is not making enough effort to advertise to younger kids what it is like to be an engineer. I think we are trying to target a lot at university level, which is good, but I think we should do more work earlier on in … even primary school level and secondary school to try make engineering look sexy to young people.”
Frank Whitsura (Honeywell Process Solutions)
With respect to technology-based solutions to the skills shortage, “The traditional way of doing engineering service for the last 100 years has been, ‘you bring a person to where the problem is, either on a horse or a train or a plane’. With modern technology we can go a long way to mitigating some of the skills shortage by using technology tools like: remote collaboration, remote tools, embedding knowhow into systems, and shared knowledge databases. I do not think it can ever be the complete solution, but I think some of the technology tools we have available today can help mitigate that crisis.”
For more information contact Honeywell ACS South Africa, +27 (0)11 695 8000, [email protected] or www.honeywell.co.za
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