An Evaluation on the Relevance of Engineering Education to Zambia’s Economic Development

Zambia’s development goals are targeted at alleviation of poverty through the implementation of socio-economic reforms using various economic strategies focusing on measures aimed at achieving strong sustained economic growth and development in all sectors of the economy. A key aspect of a development strategy designed to bring about economic development in a peripheral economy like that of Zambia is the improvement of competitiveness through closing the technological gap between it and the more advanced economies of the world. One of the most important ways of closing the development gap is through the transfer or acquisition of modern competitive technologies and/or the generation of these through the appropriate mobilization of indigenous resources. However, this is critically dependent on adding value to the local human resource mainly through the third-level educational institutions or institutions of higher learning who offer engineering education. The dominant objective of engineering education is to satisfy the need for skilled technical workers and providing the required critical mass of engineering manpower for domestication of competitive technologies. This paper examines challenges faced in improving delivery of engineering education in Zambia with the view of providing a direction for remedial measures to be taken in addressing the situation. The bulk of the observations are based on the Copperbelt University as a typical representative third level higher institution of learning which was established with faculties of engineering to satisfy labour demands for the mining and manufacturing industry in Zambia.