The Institution of Engineers Rwanda (IER) on Friday December 9, convened to talk over the sustainability of the internship programme for varsity graduate engineers, a platform that seeks to link theory and practical knowledge attained on the field. The meeting, held in the Nyarugenge-based Ubumwe Grande Hotel brought together different stakeholders from the public and private sectors and the academia. “The most challenging factor our industry faces today is one of gaps between the theoretical knowledge gained from school and practical skills in the job market,” said Steven Sabiti, Executive Secretary of the Institution. “This project was therefore very critical in bridging this gap. Our meeting today, therefore, will be looking at how best to sustain the initiative so that our young engineers can continue getting such opportunities even beyond the funding from our external partners,” Sabiti added. The initiative, incepted in 2018, had helped over 200 graduate engineers get placements in different private institutions as interns, by March 2021. It is also supported by the United Kingdom Royal Academy of Engineering through the Africa Catalyst Project. Through the programme, successful applicants are provided with stipend and deployed in various institutions where they gain practical skills to supplement the largely theoretical knowledge acquired in colleges. Women participation is critical Looking at the current gap, Sabiti said that the second component of the meeting was to engage with the stakeholders on how best to increase the number of women in the profession of engineering, citing that it remains alarmingly low, compared to other sectors of the economy. For instance, he said, there are just over 200 women out of the 2400 registered engineers in the country, making them less than 10 per cent. “Vision 2050 set by the Government of Rwanda and other short and medium term goals including the National Strategy for Transformation, place the woman at the centre of the achievement of the ambitious targets outlined in these goals.” Sabiti highlighted. Unfortunately, however, the engineering industry remains critically underrepresented. “It was therefore important that we collectively look at what can be done in this regard since we had all the industry captains in the same room.” Similar sentiments were shared by Cecile Uwimana, the ACP Project Leader and a member of the IER Women Chapter, who stressed that the issue of the small number of women in engineering requires increased attention in view of organization and inspiration of graduate women engineers to embrace the diversity and inclusion policy. “As project manager and initiator, I am proud to see the impact that this project brought to the Institution of Engineers Rwanda and to the society in general. This program supported and developed career skills for 210 young graduate engineers needed in the industry. With structured guidance and training under the supervision of senior engineers, this programme needs to be sustainable and supported from all levels,” Umimana reiterated. Didier Karangwa, a graduate of Civil Engineering from the College of Science and Technology at the University of Rwanda, said that the platform has opened enormous opportunities for his career development. Karangwa recalls going through a stiff competition when he applied for the programme with an aim of getting a placement in a company where I would get practical skills to complement the knowledge I had acquired at university. “Luckily for me, three months into my six-month industrial attachment, my employer liked my services so I was hired and I am now a full time employee at NPD Cotraco, one of the leading civil engineering and construction companies in the country,” he pointed out.
