ISLAMABAD (July 23 2010): Pakistan has become a provisional member of Washington Accord which would facilitate mobility of engineering graduates and professionals at an international level, stated Engr. Senator Rukhsana Zuberi, chairperson Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC) during a press conference here on Thursday. The proposal of Pakistan's membership was placed by the (PEC) before the International Engineering Alliance (IEA) meeting 2010 held in Ottawa, Canada.

Three country's membership namely Thailand, Turkey and Pakistan was on the agenda of the meeting. Pakistan and Turkey were granted provisional signatory status, Zuberi revealed. Pakistani engineering graduates would now be accepted for transfer of credits and admission for higher studies into accredited programmes of member countries and a new chapter of employment opportunities would open and help the country's engineers to prove their worth abroad, especially in developed countries, she added.

She suggested that five percent quota of engineering staff should be allocated for internship and training of fresh engineers by the industry and special job quotas be fixed for handicapped engineers. PEC has formulated bylaws for continuing professional development of engineers to build their capacity, which would help them compete at an international level.

She said that Pakistan is expected to get full membership of Washington Accord in about two years after it brings its academic programmes, curricula, examination and evaluation system up to the international level and revises its accreditation system to make it fully outcome based.

She was of view that PEC alone cannot achieve permanent signatory status as it demands collective effort by the engineering stakeholders especially the government, Higher Education Commission and engineering universities. PEC would soon call Vice Chancellors committee meeting to take them on board to cope with the challenges ahead. Washington Accord, signed in 1989, is an international agreement among bodies responsible for accrediting engineering degree programmes. It recognises the substantial equivalency of programmes accredited by those bodies and recommends that graduates of programmes accredited by any of the signatory bodies be recognised by the other bodies as having met the academic requirements for entry to the practice of engineering.

At present the Washington Accord member countries include, Australia, USA, Ireland, New Zealand, UK, Canada, South Africa, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, China, Taipei, Malaysia and Singapore. The provisional members include Germany, Russia, Sri Lanka and India. The membership of Washington Accord is recognition of the quality of engineering education offered by the country and an avenue to bring it up to world class category.


Copyright Business Recorder, 2010