UG to expand engineering programme to address labour shortage

…as lack severely affecting local industries

The local demand for engineers has doubled over the last three years, and is expected to be tripled in 2024.
Vice-Chancellor of the University of Guyana, Professor Paloma Mohamed- Martin, has disclosed that the institution plans to expand its Faculty of Engineering and Technology this year, in an effort to train more Guyanese.
According to her, the university recently had its highest number of graduates in the engineering sector, representing a 72% increase in the last six years. This included the first batch of petroleum engineering graduates.
However, the number of persons entering the local workforce is relatively low, given that a large number of engineer students are taking up jobs within the international private sector.

Martin explained that this is severely affecting local industries.
“We have tripled the number of engineers we were producing since 2020 but still that’s not enough, because they’re getting absorbed before they graduate into the international private sector, and the local private sector is losing them, the Government sector is losing them; and, of course, UG is also losing our own people that we are employing,” Martin stated.
Martin said the university is working assiduously to tackle this issue in 2024, and this will be done in a comprehensive manner that would benefit the local, regional and international labour markets.
In the latter part of 2023, the University of Guyana, in collaboration with the Greater Guyana Initiative, turned sod for the construction of a US$2.25 million building to service thousands of students looking to develop careers in science, technology, and engineering. The 15,000 square feet of new space would house the Faculty of Science and Technology and the Faculty of Earth and Environment Sciences. Slated for completion in July, the facility comprises a conference room, classrooms, offices, and laboratories. It
also caters for the extension and rehabilitation of existing labs within the Faculty of Engineering and Technology.
Further, the University will be implementing an Immerse Virtual Reality training programme for engineering students at its Tain Campus in Berbice this year. This initiative would allow students to use Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a tool for leaning, rather than having to travel to the Georgetown Campus weekly to manually do labs.
“It allows us to really speed up and escalate exactly how many people we can train at once. They can be in different places, because it’s device diagnostic. They can have it on their phone, whatever, and it is also very individualistic: cause if we set the bar at a grade of 90, you have to repeat this over and over until you get to 90,” Martin explained.
According to Martin, over the past six to seven years, the university has seen a massive increase in the number of applicants to the engineering and other technical programmes being offered. Most of them, she noted, are interested in the mechanical, electrical and computer engineering programmes, which are three of the five engineering courses being offered by the institution.

Artificial Intelligence
In 2023, the University of Guyana developed an Artificial Intelligence (AI) Policy to govern the use of technologies such as ChatGPT among students and researchers within the institution. However, the university is looking to further embrace AI as a tool for learning, and in this regard, works are ongoing to help teachers understand how to use the platform as a learning tool. She explained that the initiative would assist educators with crafting assignments and/or other kinds of assessment in keeping with the required learning objectives and examination requirements of courses.
According to Martin, technology is becoming increasingly crucial to teaching and learning, and as AI becomes one of the latest technological advancements, UG must find ways of integrating it into students’ academic pursuits.
“We take a very proactive but responsible position on the use of AI and any technology at the University, but we can’t have a country that is moving as fast as ours, where we have teachers in schools who don’t understand how technology works; cannot transmit that to their students; who are themselves not using the technology; not experimenting with it, and not understanding how they could create a policy in the schools, and so on”.

Smart classrooms
A total of 25 smart classrooms were constructed and commissioned by Government in 2023. These facilities are equipped with interactive boards, audio systems, smart cameras, a wireless television for remote access, and motion and voice-activated cameras complete with a face recognition feature.
Further, the Education Ministry, in collaboration with the National Centre for Educational Resource Development (NCERD), launched the Spark Programme in several schools last year with the aim of introducing students to AI technology.
Among schools participating in the programme are Queen’s College, the Bishops’ High School, St. Joseph High, St Rose’s High, Berbice High, and New Amsterdam Secondary School.