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Are Rwandan engineers losing out to foreigners in the job market?

Friday December 13 2019
eng

Rwandan girls showcasing skills in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) PHOTO | FILE

By ARAFAT MUGABO

Engineers have called on government and private sector to employ local engineers, decrying the proliferation of expatriates.

Grace Ingabire, the chief executive officer of Rwanda Internet Community and Technology Alliance, requested the government to guarantee the safety and security of local engineers working with their foreign counterparts as well as address their welfare and working conditions.

“It has been discovered that the few employed engineers are given minor jobs working under the direction of foreign engineers. It is difficult for local engineers to be trusted to lead any project,” said Ms Ingabire.

“Many foreign engineers who come here do not have experience and or even documents but urprisingly, local employers prefer them to Rwandan qualified experts,” said Ms Ingabire.

“We condemn employers in Rwanda who don’t employ local experts and hire foreigners in projects which can be handled by locals,” she said. “There is no skill shortage in engineering, yet local employers extend occupation to overseas workers,” she added.

Ms Ingabire also called on the government to develop and ratify a national policy on a structured engineering apprenticeship programme that will make it mandatory for graduates to get sponsored internships from the government before their licensing.

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This, she said, will help bridge the gap between professional and graduate engineers.

Network engineers through their alliance told Rwanda Today that they continue to miss out on job opportunities due to lack of trust by top employers in areas of Advanced Routing and Network  monitoring and Management.

She said majority of employers no longer send employees for training abroad because they can acquire requisite skills locally, but still hiring of Rwandan in the field remains low.

In the recent training, organised by RICTA, over 350 network engineers and managers on Advanced Routing and Network Monitoring and Management were trained.

These are some of the courses that engineers used to acquire abroad, especially in the UK, South Korea, and South Africa.

Ms Ingabire further said that they offer skills that network engineers never covered at school, for instance, how to detect network failures using apps that send alerts on their mobile phones and e-mails, but still, employers prefer foreigners,” she said.

“It is as if the skills we offer to other start-up networking engineers are not recognised by local employers,” added Ms Ingabire.

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