Compliment of the season to you all in Nigeria, there is serious competition between all these three. Engineers are rated more superior to others. HND certificate is considered inferior to bachelors. Polytechnic institutions are trying to convert to universities because of these challenge, but should it be so? If we evaluate each of these roles carefully we will discover that their roles and responsibilities are entirely different from one another, based on this, there is no basis for comparison. Each of them are important and the structure of education,different from each other,this means their thought patterns based on the characteristics of education varies.
Engineers from their standpoint are research oriented, they create models of their research, this is why they more theoretical in their learning the design models and system based on the needs of society. They indulge in rigorous mathematics calculations as their basic analytical tools.They are inventors and innovators. The engage in forward and reverse engineering approaches. They bring something new to the earth that never existed
Technologist on the other hand are application oriented. They use the research of the engineers to bring solution to diverse areas in the industry. the are more practical oriented in their approaches. They use the resources of what the engineers provide to bring a product that will serve mankind
Technicians lastly, maintain, service and install, troubleshoot the product that are produced by the technologist. When equipment malfunctions, the handle it. They install, service and maintain the products available. They have no business in research or production but work on what is available.
The Works Of Engineers, Technologist and Technicians.
We can see that these three groups work as a food chain. The engineers feed the technologist and the technologist feed the technicians. The engineers are at the top of the ladder while technicians are at the bottom. Engineers are not meant to the work of the other two.
In every team there must be the head, so in these three teams the engineers are the head, but also needs the other two to make progress. If the work of the engineers ends up in paper and physically brought to lime light of what benefit is his research to mankind, if after research the technologist implement it into a specific area in the industry and the product is not maintained by the technicians and breaks down, how do we repair it. That means we will be forced to purchase a new product.
They all need each other. We should help one another. We should cooperate and not compete because the structure and content of our education differ from each other. We need each other for us to forge ahead. We should stop looking down on each other and embrace each other, no matter how we claim to know. There is area we don’t know that others function well, no man is an island of knowledge, we need each other.
In summary, engineers are research providers, technologist are production providers, technicians are maintenance providers. We should not endeavor to do all the roles, if we do we become jack of all trades, master of none. There is power in focusing in one thing, we become expert and can do it even in our sleep, but concentrating in many things makes us less skilled and productive
Written by
Jimmy Ekwensi
Developed and Reposted by
Akpede Akpevwe
