By Hifsa Raja ISLAMABAD, May 30 (INP-WealthPK): The Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC) is continuing its efforts to act as a bridge between academia and industry. To promote the branding of engineers and the engineering community, the PEC is planning to arrange a career fair for engineers to showcase cutting-edge technologies, research, and final year design projects (FYDPs). Mukhtar Hussain, Senior Vice Chairman of the PEC, informed WealthPK that the career fair for engineers is provisionally scheduled for July 22-23, 2022 at Expo Centre Karachi. He stated that the PEC, which comes under the ambit of the Ministry of Science and Technology, also has a career portal to aid engineers. “The PEC has also registered Chinese companies for China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects as contractors after being registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP). Their registration stipulates that their company must employ 70% Pakistani and 30% Chinese engineers. The PEC has introduced this obligation to make sure that the Pakistani engineers receive the greatest possible benefit,” he said. “Biometric verification is required for registration of Pakistani engineers engaged by a Chinese enterprise. After all conditions are met, the case of registration of a Chinese company is presented to the PEC, and the enrollment committee then decides about the registration,” he said. Mukhtar mentioned that there are 30 engineering disciplines. He said Capstone Expo for engineers is expected to be held in June. He stated that the Engineering Development Board (EDB) must first approve the projects presented during the capstone exhibition. While talking about the collaboration of PEC and China, he said, “Such collaborations in academics will also solve the problem of outdated curriculum. And in industry, the idea of value chain management is very important. In accordance with the principle of value chain, if we import any raw material, we must now add value to it. If the students are currently employed in the industry during their college, they are familiar with the stages involved in adding value to items before leaving the college. Adding value to products and managing the value chain can help increase trade.” The PEC and China Association of Science & Technology (CAST) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to establish a bilateral cooperation and exchange mechanism for engineering capacity building, improve the quality of engineering education and talents, and facilitate the mutual recognition of engineers from both countries, based on the principle of mutual benefit and win-win situation. Both the PEC and CAST are full signatories of the Washington Accord (WA) under International Engineering Alliance (IEA), an international accord covering considerable equivalence of engineering qualifications among its 21 signatories. It is an international accreditation for academic degrees in engineering. It states that the engineering degree obtained is equivalent among all pact members. The connection of the PEC with the Washington Accord opens the door for Pakistani degrees to have the same value as those in developed nations. The eligibility for the work visa, commonly known as the Skilled Graduate Work Visa, is now the largest advantage that Washington Accord-accredited degree programs have over non-accredited degree programs. It allows an individual to work abroad without any limits.