Strong engineering workforce highlights Trinidad/Tobago meeting

Emily M. Smith
ASME NEWS

Engineers, industry leaders and educators gathered last month in the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago for the "Engineering Workforce Training and Development Conference: Towards 2020 and Beyond," which was organized by ASME and sponsored by BP p.l.c., bpTT and Air Liquide.

ASME President Harry Armen traveled to the conference with a contingent of ASME staff who collectively served as ambassadors of engineering. The event was intended to build bridges between the engineering profession and Caribbean countries, and to launch EWeek outside of the United States. ASME is the lead society for EWeek 2005.

ASME President Harry Armen welcomes students from three all-girl high schools who attended the engineering workforce conference.

The event also launched the opening of ASME's newest student section. Based at the University of the West Indies in St. Augustine, Trinidad, the student section is the first student-run campus organization focused on mechanical engineering in the English-speaking Caribbean.

As oil and natural gas industries continue to develop in the region, engineering graduates will play a critical role in the Republic's efforts to attain developed nation status by the year 2020.

The ASME conference helped lend support to that national endeavor by focusing on the importance of a strong and well-trained engineering and technology workforce.

In addition to Armen, speakers included Prof. Gurmohan S. Kochhar from the University of the West Indies and Prof. Kenneth Julien from the University of Trinidad and Tobago.

Nearly 200 people attended the event. Participants included students from three high schools for girls. During a Q&A session, several of them asked how they could learn more about engineering.

The mid-morning session continued with an emphasis on technical issues of the engineering workforce with speakers John Baxter, director of Engineering, BP; Malcolm Jones, executive chairman, Petrotrin; and Joe Fowler, who is the chief executive officer of Stress Engineering USA.

The conference also served as a forum for information about the launch of ASME's new Engineering Management Certification International, a worldwide certification program to validate knowledge, skills and best practices in engineering management and to ensure consistency in engineering management skills.

The Houston-based International Petroleum Technology Institute of ASME also made a presentation.

Sponsor BP was so pleased with the results that it plans to discuss participating in similar ASME programs in China and Azerbaijan.

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