Speech By The Chairman Of Engineers Board Of Kenya The Commissioning Of Examination Center
SPEECH BY THE CHAIRMAN OF ENGINEERS BOARD OF KENYA THE COMMISSIONING OF EXAMINATION CENTER
25TH FEBRUARY 2020
- Chief Guest - Prof. Arch. Paul M. Maringa (Principal Secretary State Department of Infrastructure),
- President of Institution of Engineers of Kenya,
- Board Members Engineers Board of Kenya,
- Distinguished Guests,
- All Protocols observed,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is with great joy and delight to all assemble here as we commission the Engineers Board of Kenya Examination Center. A significant milestone in the implementation of the Engineers Act, Engineers Rules and the Board Strategic Plan (2019-2022).
The Board’s core mandate is to register engineers. The Board’s current membership stands at 15,228 members. Registered Graduate Engineers are 12,505 (83%), Professional Engineers are 2,135 (14%), Consulting Engineers are 454 (3%) and Consulting Firms are 134. The country therefore has a shortage of close to 10,000 professional engineers to meet the international required standards to its population.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Given this reality, the Board has mounted several sensitization initiatives in the country on the provisions of the Engineers Act 2011 as to who can offer professional engineering services. This sensitization has resulted into increased Public awareness of who an engineer is and services offered by engineers; high demand for professional engineers and professional engineering services; and increased number of applications for registration as professional engineers.
In the last one year alone, the Board has received 598 applications for registration consideration as professional engineers against annual average of 204 in the previous three years. The Board has further received 78 applications for registration consideration as consulting engineers against an average of 32 in the previous three years. The influx has given us a positive indication and motivation to increase the awareness, and strengthen the compliance and enforcement mechanisms to ensure only qualified, registered and licensed engineers are offering the engineering professional services.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The Board in its quest to streamline the administration of professional examination standards and processes and in order to keep up with the increase in number of applications and demand for professional engineering services, the Board has instituted several measures targeting the entire professional and consulting registration framework. These measures include;
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The Board has developed two key policies namely Registration as a Professional Engineer Policy and Competency Standard for Registration as a Professional Engineer Policy. The policies offer much needed guidance on the pathway for registration as a professional engineer provide the competency standard for registration as a professional engineer. These policies also provide a uniform approach on how the exams will be undertaken at various sittings and defines the period exams will be undertaken;
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The Board has concluded the rigorous exercise of recruiting additional panelists to increase capacity to match the increased application to various categories of engineers professionalism; and
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The Board has created this state of art examination center that will allow several professional interviews to run concurrently. This used to be the Board’s offices. The refurbishment was done through GoK funding at a cost of Kshs. 16,170,372 and was handed over by the contractor on 29th January 2021. This facility will enhance the efficiency of processing of applications for professional registration.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
To meet the country’s need of professional engineers the Board has an ambition of ensuring a smooth and quicker transition from graduate engineer to professional engineer. The ambition is to ensure that the percentage of Graduate engineers is reduced to less than 30% in the next 5 years and 100% intake of graduate engineers into the Graduate Engineers Internship Program (GEIP).
A total of 100 graduate engineers are already in the program and recruitment of additional 200 is underway to be concluded by July 2021. It is worth noting that Cohort 1 will also be completing their two years of training by October 2021. All will then be subjected to professional examination to transition to professional level. The program therefore offers the opportunity to transition within a short period.
Finally, the Board has developed an online Graduate Engineer’s Information Management System. The system will help on the monitoring of all the graduate engineers activities and will be available to all graduate engineers who are going through structured programs in public and private sectors. The Board is therefore seeking increased partnership and collaboration within the Ministry agencies, other Government agencies and the Private sector to ensure all their graduate engineers are enrolled in this platform to undergo the structured program designed for them to qualify for examination within a shorter period even as they work at these institutions.
Thank You. May God Bless you all.
