SLIE continues to engage various heads of engineering institutions, firms, companies, and MDAs, on the new SLIE/PERC CPD framework. On Friday, 10th September 2021, representatives from SLIE engaged the management of Road Maintenance Fund Administration (RMFA), on the new SLIE/PERC CPD framework and the training needs of their engineering employees, at the Maritime Building, Government Wharf, Freetown. The meeting was attended by Ing Louise Chaytor, CPD lead, Ing Barton Cole, CPD Committee member, Ing Modupe Williams, Thomas Michael Salankole and Abdul Kaadiru Kallon, graduate engineers, and Mr. Bashiru Sheriff, Deputy CEO, Ing Mariwan Kallon, Ing. Sama Banya, Ing. Yasin Bangura of RMFA. Ing Louise Chaytor outlined that the purpose of the meeting was primarily to introduce the new SLIE/PERC CPD framework and encouraged RMFA to ensure it is in compliance with the PERC regulations that all engineers should be registered with SLIE. She also told them that they would be able to maintain their membership through participating in the new CPD framework, and engaged RMFA on the training needs of their engineers. She also encouraged RMFA to incorporate this framework as part of RMFA’s performance appraisal system. RMFA is an institution that believes in enhancing the capacity of staff members, so there is a training budget allocated for annual training of all staff including engineers. The RMFA engineers are all registered members and have been actively participating in SLIE activities, and are always ready to participate in SLIE programs such as this new CPD framework. The Deputy CEO, assured the SLIE representatives that RMFA is willing to support their engineers and management will consider aligning the SLIE CPD framework with the RMFA’s performance appraisal management for career growth and suggested SLIE/PERC should ensure that there is a requirement for all graduating engineers before they are considered professionals as compared to other countries. The meeting was timely,the Deputy CEO continued, as recently the RMFA conducted a workshop to enhance capacity of council engineers in Bombali.

Consultation with Management and Engineers at RMFA

Ing. Mariwan Kallon, welcomed the idea of this framework as he personally believes CPD will not only help the RFMA, but also help individual engineers as it will make them become more marketable. Ing. Kallon recalled having participated in a previous panel discussion by SLIE on the Savage Street bridge collapse and noted that staff at RMFA are always encouraged by management to seek training to improve their capacities as employees, and stated he would be happy to undertake SLIE/PERC CPD. He brought to the attention of the SLIE team, a diploma program offered by Leeds University, in Civil Engineering Law. This program was offered online due to Covid-19, but this year they are now requesting in person participation. He further noted that SLIE/PERC must take into consideration the timing of training programs they will be offering for engineers, and suggested that trainings be conducted more in the rainy season as it is usually the time of the year engineers at RMFA and SLRA are less busy. Ing Sama Banya, who has benefitted from short courses funded by RMFA, prefers to have training in person rather than online due to COVID-19 reasons because engineering involves more physical engagement. He welcomed the CPD program and added that the CPD framework will help overcome confusion on SLIE membership class progression. However, Ing Banya noted, he had been having doubts about the benefits of SLIE and PERC. He highlighted concerns such as poor salary scales for engineers, job opportunities especially for graduates straight from the university, engineers lacking in technical governance management as compared to other professions and insecurity of engineering jobs. He said other professional bodies such as law and medical societies seek the welfare of their members by providing job opportunities for members. He gave examples of contract awards to engineering firms who paid low wages to their engineers, even though they were managed by Sierra Leoneans. He however, felt that the CPD framework is the right direction to take. Ing. Barton Cole responded that all concerns raised by Ing Banya, can only be fully addressed with SLIE/PERC having the full support from the government and from its membership. He mentioned that the amendment to the PERC act has been stalled for twelve years and SLIE/PERC are hoping Parliament will pass the amendment this year. Ing. Chaytor added that SLIE did a salary survey in 2016, however, the country’s economic situation influenced engineers’ salary. She said that SLIE is planning to engage with Ministry of labour to discuss among other things salaries for engineers. Ing. Modupe Williams also representing Engineers for Change Sierra Leone (EFCSL), a Sierra Leone based UK charity organization, mentioned from the EFCSL perspective whose main focus is bringing the UK’s system of engineering standard to Sierra Leone. This includes CPD. The UK CPD for Civil engineers’ competency range involves different attributes including not just theoretical and practical knowledge, but health and Safety, commercial ability, sustainability, independent judgement etc. They aim for the transition of this attribute system into the Sierra Leone CPD. Ing. Chaytor further mentioned that one objective of the CPD framework, is to make international courses available at national level. She said training sessions will be arranged once the CPD online platform is launched. The Deputy CEO, RMFA, in concluding the meeting, suggested continuous engagements among all engineers until a resolution is found to issues facing engineers and on improving the profession. A copy of the CPD Booklet was presented to the RMFA team.