The Engineering Council of Namibia (ECN) says Namibia has sufficient engineers, predominantly in civil, mechanical and electrical fields, with only a few in rare specialised fields.
Currently, there are 1,378 active engineers, of which 1,101 are men and 277 women.
Topping the list are civil engineers at 787, electrical are 325, mechanical 161, electronic 37, mining 16, chemical 12, agricultural 11, nine mechatronics, eight metallurgical, and four telecommunications.
In addition, computer and petroleum engineers are only three and two, respectively.
ECN Vice President Ignatius Endyala urged unregistered engineers to seek job placements to qualify for registration as fully qualified professionals.
He highlighted that for a person to be registered and endorsed as a qualified engineer, one needs to attain at least three or more years of in-training at any engineering company.
“We have many engineering graduates who are just at home, which is worrisome as one may not be certified as an engineer without any in-training which is set at a minimum of three years. Therefore, we are appealing to our graduates to seek exposure and join engineering entities so that they too can be full professionals with practical knowledge,” said Endyala.
“The companies often have guidelines that we provide, in which a trainee graduate should be appraised. After completion, we would get a report that we will evaluate and ascertain if all requirements are met. Thus, a graduate with a Diploma will be certified as a Technical Engineer, while for a BTech degree you will be classified as an Incorporated Engineer, while for a trainee with a professional degree will be registered as a Professional Engineer.”
He further reiterated that the major challenge faced by the Council is lack of exposure to graduates.
Meanwhile, ECN President, Sophia Belete-Tekie explained that, although 3,072 engineers are recorded in their register, only 1,378 have updated their information on the new system and regarded fully registered engineers.
“1,694 are not active due to various reasons or did not update information yet,” she said.
