Under the Washington Accord (WA), Nigerian engineers have joined 21 other professionals in a worldwide engineering alliance that will support regional competence on a global scale.

Nigeria joined the agreement after South Africa on the continent. The WA, which was signed in 1989, is a worldwide multilateral agreement between organizations in charge of accrediting or recognizing tertiary level engineering diplomas in their respective regions, with the aim of promoting professional engineers' mobility.

the UK, the USA, Germany, Canada, Japan, China, India, Brazil, Mexico, Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, Switzerland, and South Africa are among the 21 nations that now participate in the WA.

The signatories of the WA are dedicated to the advancement and acknowledgement of best practices in engineering education, just like the other accords—Sydney and Dublin, respectively—that address engineering technologists and engineering technicians.

The participants of the agreement want to help the mutual recognition of engineering credentials spread around the globe. They are concentrated on academic programs that deal with professional engineering practice.

The agreement recognizes that engineering academic program accreditation is a crucial cornerstone for the professional practice of engineering in each of the nations or territories covered by the alliance.

The Council of Regulations of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN) helped make the achievement feasible. COREN had shown interest in joining the WA in 2018 and formally submitted their application in 2019, but it was unable to secure the minimal number of signatures needed.

The engineering education curriculum must be aligned with outcome-based education (OBE), and there must be sufficient proof of the accreditation body's independence from external or governmental interference.

COREN President, Prof. Sadiq Abubakar, who disclosed this in Lagos, said some of the benefits include, “the quality, productivity and mobility of Nigerian engineers would be improved upon and the engineering qualification offered in Nigeria is internationalised. Engineers plying their trade in other economies of the world, will enhance the transfer of knowledge, which will in turn, improve Nigeria’s technological capacity.”

He claimed that because of the promotion of currency exchange between the two countries, Nigerian engineers have the opportunity to work abroad.

He added that COREN is pursuing such agreements for Nigerian technologists and technicians under the Sydney and Dublin Accords. Engineering experts would have new prospects as a result of joining these accords.

Source: The Guardian