EIT recently embarked on a roadshow through southern Africa, covering hot trends in engineering, job prospects across the engineering disciplines, and troubleshooting tips.
Dean of Engineering Dr. Steve Mackay and Edwina Ross presented an interactive seminar on ‘engineering as a noble profession’ to aspiring engineers and industry professionals in South Africa, Namibia, and Botswana.
In the crowds were EIT alumni, current students, prospective students, and curious engineering enthusiasts. The seminars did focus on the noble profession of engineering and its immutable age-old principles. However, Dr. Mackay also demonstrated how the industry is changing thanks to globalization and advanced technologies.
“We are hyper-connected: mobile apps, emails, social media, and a quickly updating web. Analytics and predictive models are appearing. One of the great programming languages is Python. There are incredible tools you can use in your career. Everything is in the cloud; you can derive huge resilience by working under the cloud. If it weren’t for the cloud, we wouldn’t have a college,” Dr. Mackay said.
He noted that engineers are finding employment in a plethora of industries they might never have considered before due to the changing nature of the industry, learning, and training under the fourth industrial revolution.
“Engineering is increasingly driven by technology, and these technologies change rapidly. In response, engineers need to become more versatile. There is downward pressure on repetitive jobs in industry today.
“You have to take ownership of your education and training. That’s why you guys are here because you’re proactive in your learning. We believe that engineering skills are becoming more and more generalistic. Today you have to go cross-disciplinary and become a highly-skilled generalist.”
EIT as a solution to conquering the automation future
“EIT is a creature of the fourth industrial revolution,” Dr. Mackay said. The seminar highlighted EIT’s Industrial Automation qualifications, which have been specially created to conquer the challenges brought about by the technically demanding fourth industrial revolution.
In a wisdom-of-the-crowd practical exercise, seminar attendees were divided into groups to come up with automation solutions for several industries. They had to devise innovative solutions for automating a service station, a pizza shop, and an iron ore mining operation. The exercise demonstrated how cross-disciplinary the engineering solutions are to some of the world’s most complex technological problems. It also inspired the participants to think above and beyond what the role of the traditional engineer is.
The participants displayed immense creativity, which provided a fantastic insight into how the advent of automation has transformed the minds of both working and prospective engineers.
Dr. Mackay encouraged the attendees to explore the development of their critical thinking and investigate becoming shrewd entrepreneurs. His mantra is: “Experience together with life-long learning is critical for your career.”
A plethora of options with EIT
EIT’s College Manager Paul Celenza attended the seminar in Johannesburg, South Africa. He spoke to the crowd about EIT’s many study options to suit students of all different walks of life. He also described the methodology of how the institute delivers its courses.
“We have a whole gambit of different courses we provide to different students. We have live webinars where we link up students with lecturers in real-time. We have academically qualified instructors that have years and years of industry experience. They speak the same technical engineering languages that you do. We are ready to host you and get you fully equipped to thrive in your career.”
Representatives from EIT travel the world to demonstrate our unique online and on-campus delivery modes. These both make use of live and interactive webinars, an international pool of expert lecturers, dedicated learning support officers, and state-of-the-art technologies such as hands-on workshops, remote laboratories, and simulation software. Students can study online from anywhere in the world, or they can study select degrees on campus in Perth or Melbourne. Our supportive blended learning model and small class sizes allow you to advance your technical knowledge and remain engaged in your studies while forming global networks and balancing life and work commitments.
On this trip, EIT was seeking to prove to the participants that we can provide them with high-quality engineering education and training. Prospective students were most interested in the EIT programs that are accredited by Engineers Australia and therefore are recognized under international engineering accords.
“Our visit was exceedingly valuable. The African continent is hungry for education and innovation. The continent is brimming with resilient engineers. The region’s technological capabilities have grown by leaps and bounds. More Africans than ever are connected to the internet, and that is ensuring that they can come and study with EIT and fulfill their work responsibilities at the same time,” Dr. Mackay concluded.
