Head of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Imperial College London, Professor Washington Yotto Ochieng, has stated that the Royal Academy of Engineering in the United Kingdom has played a key role in training engineers across the African continent.

According to him, the academy has trained about 2,000 engineering professionals, who have secured job placements in their respective specialised fields.

He noted that the academy has also led campaigns to ensure that more women enter the engineering profession by supporting curriculum reforms in some universities to promote equality.

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Professor Ochieng made these remarks at the 2026 Aggrey-Fraser-Guggisberg Lectures themed “Building Sustainable Smart Cities on Resilient Digital Infrastructure” at the University of Ghana on March 12, 2026.

“Over 2,000 professionals we’ve trained, 530 students having industry placements, and so on and so forth. We are very inclusive in the way we look at things, very particular about women engineers, for example. We have influenced over 50 individual curricula at universities, but we are also pairing Africa with UK institutions. So over 50 UK organisations and 400 in-country bodies are involved in working together,” he said.

The Imperial College London professor also highlighted how the academy provides funding for engineering programmes in Africa and creates opportunities for engineers to excel.

He added that the Royal Academy of Engineering aims to embark on projects that will help produce more engineers across the continent.

“The other one is called the Africa Catalyst. This is where we now work directly with professional institutions. And this is just to make sure that the professional engineering bodies, including those that charter our engineers, are effective in promoting the profession, they share best practices, and they address local engineering capacity.

“So that’s the Catalyst, we give you some money, we issue calls to basically create those relationships. This one is interesting for the students among you, not just the students, but staff as well. I’m very excited about this,” he added.

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