Engineers can now be global consultants

Indian engineering disciplines (such as civil, mechanical, electrical and electronics) will soon get international accreditation in 10 countries, enabling Indian engineers to work as professionals and set up their consultancies in these countries.

To date, when an Indian engineer wants to practice abroad, he needs to fulfill certain requirements. In most cases, this means clearing an examination.

A membership of Washington Accord (WA) accreditation is a pre-requisite in this case. It's only when an engineer goes abroad on a contract with his company that he does not need the accreditation.

The scenario will change now that the National Board of Accreditation (NBA), only accreditation body responsible for accreditation of technical education programmes in India, will receive a provisional accreditation from the WA by end of June 2007. It will get full membership status by 2009.

The WA will help the engineers register with the official registration body in these countries and also get legal protection while practicing in these nations.

WA is an agreement among the Engineering Quality Assurance Organisations of the 10 nations "� Australia, Canada, Hong Kong , Japan, Ireland, New Zealand, United Kingdom, United States of America, Singapore and South Africa "� and recognises the engineering programmes awarded by these organisations.

Engineers in these countries, unlike India, have a professional legal title they work under. For instance, engineers in the UK have a title called Professional Engineers.

It recommends that the graduates of accredited programmes in any of the signatory countries shall be recognised by the other countries as having met the academic requirements for practicing the engineering profession.

NBA accredits around 32 engineering programmes in the country with 700 colleges. Only bachelor degree holders can avail of this facility "� not diploma and masters degree holders.

"As India is net exporter of technical manpower, this is in our interest to get its membership. This accreditation will also give a fillip to the conventional engineering functions like civil, mechanical and electrical in India," said Prof Prasad Krishn, convenor NBA.

Incidentally, Indian students work abroad even without accreditation. But some countries which have issues with the validity on an engineer's degree, this accreditation will benefit those candidates.

"If you want to practice as professional engineer then accreditation is a pre-requisite with the WA member countries," says Prasad, adding: "In the light of General Agreement on Trade and Services (GATS), when broader mobility of graduates in allowed countries, it will help mobility and registration of the engineers."

Meanwhile, the Institution of Engineers "� a multi-disciplinary engineering professional society "� too has applied for an Engineers Mobility Forum (EMF) certification which will enable better mobility of Indian engineers.

EMF deals with professional engineers who have an accredited degree in engineering with minimum seven years of experience in significant engineering activity and maintained a satisfactory level of continuous professional development.

India produces nearly 5 lakh engineers

30-40 per cent of these are computer engineers

China churns out 6 lakh engineering graduates

US produces only 70,000 engineering graduates every year

Entire Europe has only 1 lakh engg graduates