ANGARA: RP ENGINEERS NEED BETTER STANDING IN GLOBAL MARKET
Calls for legislation to modernize the country's science and technology, engineering programs

Concerned that Filipino engineers struggle to obtain international accreditation, making it more difficult for them to meet requirements for jobs abroad, Sen. Edgardo J. Angara has called for an intensified training program for engineering students in the country in order to qualify for the international accreditation agreement known as the Washington Accord.

"One of the hurdles of our engineers from qualifying to international registers such as the APEC Register and the International Professional Engineers' Register is the two years short in our basic education. So we also don't qualify for the Washington Accord and other, bigger bodies, disadvantaging our engineers from their counterparts from Western universities," lamented Angara, who was former President of the University of the Philippines.

In a report submitted in the meeting of the Congressional Commission on Science and Technology and Engineering (COMSTE), which Angara chairs, it was raised that although Filipino engineers abound in the construction and oil sectors in North America, Europe and the Middle East, there are still issues that prevent them from attaining equal stature with their Western counterparts. This, the panel said, is partly because of the lack of accreditation or recognition that Filipino engineers hold from international engineering bodies.

"We must internationalize our engineering and IT professionals and allow them to be recognized by international standards so they have better chances in the global labor market and command better compensation," Angara added.

The Washington Accord is an international accreditation agreement for professional engineering academic degrees, between the bodies responsible for accreditation in its signatory countries. Established in 1989, the signatories as of 2007 are Australia, Canada, the Republic of Ireland, Hong Kong, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Taiwan, the United Kingdom and the United States.

The agreement recognizes that there is substantial equivalency of programs accredited by those signatories. Graduates of accredited programs in any of the signatory countries are recognized by the other signatory countries as having met the academic requirements for entry to the practice of engineering. Recognition of accredited programs is not retroactive but takes effect only from the date of admission of the country to signatory status.

"Technology is so rapidly evolving. We have to keep catching up. By next year, we will eventually have a different agenda, and we will see different demands and requirements. So we need to work on this aspect fast," reminded Angara. He urged the panel, composed of the heads of agencies of the DOST, COMSTE, DepEd and COMSTE's Technical Advisory Council, that all science and engineering agencies - both in the private and public sectors - should be working on science and technology and engineering curriculum and training upgrade.