Engineering: issues, challenges and opportunities for development ...

ENGINEERING AROUND THE WORLD■■■■To defend members’ interest and dignity, and to keep thevocation’s traditions and honour.To enhance the scientific and vocational level of the engineer,and to activate and support scientific engineeringresearch.To contribute to planning and the development of engineering,industrial and vocational education programmes, andto work towards raising the effectiveness of the employeesin the engineering field.To contribute to studying common character topics amongArab and Islamic countries and other countries, and toexchange information, expertise and engineering publications.■ To secure a good standard of living for engineers and theirfamilies in cases of disability, old age and other emergentsituations.■■■To work in any area that may assist the association toachieve its vocational goals.To cooperate and coordinate with official bodies in thekingdom in its capacity as a consulting body in its field ofspecialization.To collaborate and coordinate with Arab, Islamic and internationalvocational engineering unions and to be a memberthereof.The total number of men and women engineers of the associationwas 70,829 in 2007, increasing by about 7 per cent eachyear. As a proportion of the population, this is equal to elevenengineers per thousand people, and is among one of the highestrates in the world. The association includes 1,200 companiesemploying 6,230 people. Some 8,828 engineers work inthe government while 9,950 engineers work with contractingcompanies, factories and private companies. Around 8,400registered engineers are employed abroad, while the numberof engineers registered with the association in Jerusalemcomes to 5,000.The increasing numbers taking interest, studying engineeringsciences and joining the JEA is a result of the good standingengineers have in society. There are now more engineeringeducational institutions and opportunities to take engineeringmajors. The construction sector in particular, alongsideother engineering sectors, has benefited from strong growth,including the opening of new markets for engineering workin several other countries. In addition, Arab engineers areincreasingly coming to practice engineering in Jordan. Publicand private sector commitment to the JEA’s regulationsTable 1: JEA members by engineering branch and nationality in 2007Branch/nationalityis proving effective with good cooperation in this area. Theengineers salary scale, which was issued under a resolution ofthe association’s council (and which came into effect in 2008),determined that the minimum salary for a newly graduatedengineer should be JD400 (US$560), and the minimum salaryfor an engineer with over twelve years experience should beJD1350 (US$1,900).5.3.3ChinaZhong YixinJordanian Arab Foreign TotalCivil 19,071 849 203 21,123Architectural 5432 469 49 5,950Mechanical 14,368 317 45 14,730Electrical 23,762 506 31 24,299Mining andmetallurgy915 15 3 933Chemist 4,728 60 6 4,794Total 68,276 2,216 337 70,829Rate 96.4% 3.1% 0.5% 100%Asia and PacificA brief note on engineering education reform in ChinaAccording to the 2005 statistics, China has thirty-five millionintellectuals among which are ten million engineers. China has1.3 million engineering graduates per year, including 650,000university graduates. China therefore has largest number ofengineers in the world. However, there have been relativelyfew engineering projects contributed by Chinese engineers inthese last few years, which is a matter of great concern for Chineseengineering education.Engineering education reform has been one of the most impressiverecent successes in China. Chinese engineering educationis quite different from that in Western countries and the issuestypically faced by Western countries, such as women’s participationin engineering and the enrolment levels of students inengineering education, are not yet problems faced by China.However, in common with many other countries, the calls forreform of engineering education have been growing louderand louder in China. Such calls emphasize the strengtheningof student abilities with innovation skills, and improving theperformance of students with more practical training.221