IN MEDELLÍN THERE IS A LACK OF SYSTEMS ENGINEERS

 

IN MEDELLÍN THERE IS A LACK OF SYSTEMS ENGINEERS

THERE ARE FEW STUDENTS AND THE CURRICULUM MUST BE TRANSFORMED, ACCORDING TO ACOFI. ALERT FOR POSSIBLE CRISIS.

In the country there are around 100 thousand vacancies in systems engineering but there is no one to fill them. The paradox, given the lack of employment, occurs because there is a lack of systems, computer or related engineers and their quality must be improved.

The alert was launched by Willian Branch, dean of the Faculty of Mines at Unal, who is also president of Acofi (Colombian Association of Engineering Faculties).

According to Branch, this is because there is currently a lack of interest among young people in studying engineering and the other is the quality deficit in training in this area.

“The quality in the training of systems, computer science, computing and related engineers that the country offers is going through a quite important crisis of contextualization in the face of the global reality of what an engineer who works in the area of information and communications technologies,” explained the manager.

In Medellín alone, the professional systems engineering program is offered in 19 higher education institutions. But that number of programs not only in Medellín but throughout the country has no relationship with what companies need. “There has to be a relationship between the Government, industry and academia,” warns Branch.

Given this panorama, at Acofi work commissions are going to be formed that aim to qualify the curriculum in the area, and also promote engineering among young people so that they find, and in this case systems engineering, an important option at the level of professional training. . This will be done at the national level.

At UPB, students work

At the Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana they have also noted that systems engineers are needed for the country's productive system. According to Roberto Carlos Hincapié, director of the Faculty of ICT Engineering, employers require a high number of graduates, “which we are not producing in the city.”

An indication of this, according to the teacher, is that since the seventh semester the students have been going out to work.

For the manager it is also clear that there are distances between academia and industry. “Systems engineering has become such a complex area that it is not possible to train an engineer in all aspects. In this sense, there is a need for more dialogue between universities and companies,” added Hincapié.

At UPB, between 40 and 60 people, depending on the semester, are entering the systems engineering program. Among the reasons for dropping out is that some students have difficulties with basic sciences.

There is high demand from entrepreneurs

At Eafit, an average of 80 new students enter systems engineering per year.
For Edwin Nelson Montoya, head of the Systems Engineering undergraduate program, there is a “high demand from industry and especially software for systems engineering professionals. Furthermore, companies in general demand that it is not enough given the supply that universities are producing.”