Introduction to the African Institute for Higher Technical Training and Research : (An all-Africa University of Technology Institution)

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LIMITED

PAIir*/AIETTR/GC/III-S/9/81 June 1931

Original % ENGLISH

ECONOMIC COMMISSION FOR AFRICA African Institute for Higher Technical

Training and Research

Extraordinary Meeting of the Governing Council Addis Ababa, 15-16 June 1931

INTRODUCTIO1J TO THE AFRICAN INSTITUTE FOR HIGHER TECHNICAL TRAINING AND RESEARCH

(An all-Africa University of Technology Institution)

M81-1716

The perisistent industrialisation problems of developing

countries'and the well-known technology gap coextensive with these have confirmed, after almost half a century of minimal success in manpower production using the traditional techniques of modern

engineering education in the African region, that effective industria lization which meets national aspirations here must be built on the major though not exclusive participation of a national technology whose technologists and managers are of such practically oriented up-brinings that they are as much at homo on the factory floor as at the project-design or the project-negotiation table; that the same technocrats must seed initially the major disciplines, and _ progressively all fields, of technological innovation and production;

and that eventually they should provide- the bulk of technical expertise, theoretical and manipulative, at all levels of planning, design and

production for modern industry and commerce.

The coverage of such a revolutionary programme that ranges from the mass production of domestic electro-mechanical goods and machine tools to the maintenance and manufacture of heavy industrial and coramerical equipment, makes it obvious that no developing African country can alone muster all the necessary manpower, material and monetary resources within a time-span that at least offers hope of restraining the ubiquitous technology gap. This is particularly

striking in the so-called hard-technology, capital-intensive industries such as*the production and marketing of nuclear energy in bulk or of internal combustion engines, where the size of the African regional market ensures the viability of inter-governmental projects in

almost any field.

The innovative approach of the African Institute for Higher Technical Training and Research recognises for example that it is^

not enough in tackling the technical manpower problems of the region, to plan for generally conventional technical manpower tynes no matter on how long-term a forecast basis, or even to mobilise funds and

facilities no matter how ample? such preparations are useless unless programmes are first designed for specific desiderated manpower

types such as foundry technologists, metallurgists, mineralogists, petrologists and food and drugs technologists, and for specific

pivotal sectors such as communications anr1. electronics, agricultural engineering, electro-mechanical technology, and minerals exploitation - despite their strategic industrial role, these are as yet little caterec.

for"by the region Is educational institutions which rather concentrate on traditional :all round;n engineering eduction. In operating such a

multi-tiered manpower production programme the African Institute would not only set the pace but would complement, not compete with, national educational efforts. Above all it will be dedicated to directly providing problem-solving machineries ,and seeding areas of attested national industrialisation needs. The vacuum in these

areas have perpetuated to this day the vicious circle of a minimally technologal" milieu using inadequate practical facilities to produce technicians and engineers who are ill-prepared for enriching this

milieu in turno

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It is in the context of breaking this vicious circle of

inadequacies of the technological environment that the African Institute plans its nost innovative approach and will most differ from or rather improve upon, the similar training methods established

by such predecessors as the Institutes of Technology of Europe, the U.S.A.p India, etc,„ Enough intra-regional industrial trainina placements are impossible to find for a large number of trainees

in the immediate of, let alone entirely within any unindustrialised

country. Moreover for such ■ placements as can be' found, in-situ supervision is lax because it lacks the individual stake of the

factory m the fate of its temporary student attachees.

Therefore the most effective industrial training in the LDCs is

in an intra-mural factory where trainees "produce while learning and learn by producing" realistic and commercially competetive goods u«der stringent factory-floor conditions, complete with its profit motives

ana modern tirae-and'-motion drives. Such an industrial "production

centre forms the core of the practical training complement of the

tutaf technology programmes of the Institute, and is intended to devote

about 10% of its resources to a daily induction per week of each

trainee on its factory*-floor. The factory process line, it is hoped, will start with a key multi-disciplinary technology such as the

production of electric motors of gradually increasing size and originality of manufacture. This is to be complemented by major non-traditional projects of the plant overhaul type, of equipment

on-line and off-line, and accompanied by cross-disciplinary studies in '■ ■ fields already identified by successive Finisterial-Ievel regional

conferences as the fields of highest priority, starting with agricultural

engineering and food™technology, technical teacher/instructor trainina and electro-mechanical engineering, and continuing with electronics "

and communications, industrial systems design and planning, technolory adaptation and environmental and infrastructural studies, in

replacement of such more classical compartroentalisations as components design, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, civil

engineering etc. It is expected that this design will inject that component of emphasized practical attitudes and aptitudes' required to compensate for the equally emphasized aridity of our industrial

atmosphere.

To achieve this programme, is, initially at any rate, relatively

capital-intensive, In the only establishment to our knowledge where a similar programme operates, namely in an engineering college in

Bangalore, India, the cpaital investiment over its 21"years life exceeded $20 m, but the industry, complete with its daily induction of some 500 trainees per week, has for long now supported not only the full budget of all the academic departments; but also some ten other public institutions. The earlier the industrial production centre of the African Institute can be put on stream/ the earlier

will the effect of the institutes novel programme as a whole be

felt throughout the region.

,

Unfortunately the programme (the early preparatory stages of which

have now been completed, including the choice of a Director"General

and the receipt of region-wide applications in all staff categories) has been subjected to delays because member States contributions

have been unexpectedly slow to arrive. Member States assessments for the two years budget are attached with enclosures that detail more than this introductory note can, the philosophy, planning and commencing programmes of the institute. Before these programmes can take off the national quotas of trainees (see also enclosure on their

distribution) have still to be advertised for and filled, staff-

recruitment has to be accelerated and completed quickly, the staff have

to come on board and a minimum of equipment has to be procured to supplement the cLarting-up facilities availed by the host government.

All these activities now await member Statess contributions'.

In vier ^pocially of some complaints of particular'financial stringencies of late, contributions do not have initially to cover the full assessments. The Govern ir-9 Council has accepted the

principle of instrumental payment, to suit the individual State's convenience? but seme part of member States1 assessments have to be paid in order at least to release the matching world-wide support already premised, to the. Institute but contingent on member States' practically demonstrating their strong support of the work of the Institute. To recapitulate; this work is a unique effort to upgrade, probably as never before, Africa's expert manpower and therefore

economic potential, in particular to innovate problem-solving

machineries designed to studied national and regional technological priorities determined by our governments themselves, in agriculture, food processing and drugs technology, technical educator/teacher/

instructor training, basic electromechanical industries including industrial planning and design, technology adaptation that is endogenous!;/ controlled rather than exogenously imposed, modern

communications ard electronics, chemical and non-metals technologies, and the exploitation ourselves of our own minerals and natural energy

resources.

We are only at the preliminary stages of progress yet; the technical consultants have just presented their implementational study report limited copies of which ^re now being mailed to member

States. The Report indicates the feasibility, subject to the appropriate support, of increasing the trainee intake in the above fields from

some 200 total in 1981 to over 3000 five years later and over 6000 in 1990= Output is designed for several levels from skilled senior technologists or technician-engineers to engineers and post-graduate researchers and designers, of an innovatively inculcated and emphasized practical bent, and produced mainly from technical personnel already inpractice, through retraining and upgrading. In an era when techno logy transfer to Africa is being resisted more and more from abroad, the programme needs the strongest possible support from African

States, firstly, and from any friends impressed by the self-reliance and the innovation so demonstrated.

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Finally, it is expected that all eligible States in the region will want to subscribe to membership; and the revised arrangement

for the Institute to open its doors very early in the new year will be considerably aided by prospective rcenberc signing very soon the Constitution of the Institute. However, for reasons of the indicated particular urgency that attaches to the arrival of member States5 ; contributions in full or in part, these contributions need net now wait to be preceded by membership signatures. Hence the Director General of the Institute in consideration of the fact that too r.uch is at stake in this project (for the future of industry and technology in the region) to permit of further delays in its scheduled take~offp appeals to all States to demonstrate now to our extra-regional friends our self-reliant commitment to the project, by paying part or the whole of their 19 80/81 assessments.