JAMAICA INSTITUTION OF ENGINEERS AWARDS OF EXCELLENCE, WAS HOSTED NOVEMBER 18, 2023

Engineering: Preserving a Legacy, Embracing Sustainability and Driving Technology

Join us on our journey to transform Jamaica’s economic landscape – JIE President Oneil Josephs

President of the Jamaica Institution of Engineers Oneil Josephs has extended an invitation to government, public and private sectors and the international community to join the engineering fraternity in its quest to transform the island’s economic landscape.

Delivering his first presidential speech at the JIE’s annual Awards of Excellence at the Jamaica Pegasus on Saturday November 18, 2023, Eng. Josephs referenced recent comments by government officials about the need for thousands of engineering graduates per year and said that institutional arrangements are needed to facilitate a sustainable ecosystem, or pipeline, for Engineering in the economy.“

The engineering fraternity will need to carefully position itself to lead, or perhaps coordinate a national effort towards this outcome. But this cannot be achieved without the deliberate inclusion of critical stakeholders”, he declared.

The first stakeholder, he expanded, is the general society, the second stakeholder is the academic institutions including the University of Technology, the University of the West Indies and the Caribbean Maritime Institute UTech, and the third comprises technical engineering businesses to support the proliferation of business opportunities to drive the economy.

The strategy, President Josephs said, will encompass three main pillars – Awareness, Research, Business (ARB). He explained:“Awareness – We intend to establish a national marketing and promotion campaign strategy to bring recognition to the significance of engineering in driving growth and development in the economy.

Research and Development – Initiate research-based collaboration among all engineering academic institutions in Jamaica Business – to bring members of the business community, other private sector interests, philanthropists, and perhaps government in order to catalyse the establishment of Engineering Tech Start-ups and strengthening capacity for existing engineering firms.

The facilitators of this vision would be JIE, the Banking Sector and Government”.

Announcing his intention to declare 2024 the year of Engineering President Josephs said that he intends “to create a spectacle around the Engineering profession for the year 2024 that brings academia, government and industry into convergence around key issues.”

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