Engineers begin capacity building for practitioners

Determined to address foundation failures and other related issues that contribute to frequent collapse of buildings in the country, the Nigerian Institution of Structural Engineers (NIStructE), a division of the Nigeria Society of Engineers (NSE) is to embark on training of young engineers and others that work in foundation construction across the six geo-political zones of the country.

Besides, the Institution said it would strengthen its continuous professional development programme and sharing of knowledge with the younger ones to address the frequent incidents of building collapse, even as, so far, none of the registered members of the institution has been involved in any collapse of building.

Speaking at a 3-day Course, organised by the institution last week, with the theme: “Application of Sub Soil Investigation Results to Design of Different Foundation Types and Pile Foundation Integrity Tests”, President of NIStructE, OreOluwa Fadayomi, said collapse of buildings has become very embarrassing, not only to the nation, but to the structural engineers, in the recent time.

Fadayomi, while regretting the presence of inexperienced individuals in the industry, said it has become imperative for the qualified and older professionals to train the younger ones and share experience they have gathered over the years with them.

Fadayomi who is also a member of the five-man committee set up by the Lagos State government to restructure the Lagos State Building Control Agency (LASBCA), said: “The institution is poised to correct errors of the past whereby the younger ones were without guide or training, thus, creating a situation of garbage in garbage out. It is our responsibility to enlighten the younger ones through our experience,” he said, urging the participants to share their knowledge through the training course with colleagues in their various offices so that they too can benefit from it.