A course aimed at equipping Mcast students with enough credits to make them eligible for an engineering warrant is shrouded in mystery.
Engineers have expressed concern with Times of Malta that while the course is expected to start in the coming weeks, with the deadline for applications being next Monday, there is no information on what the course will entail. When they attempted to seek further information, the engineers said they were told only those on the college’s list could ask for details.
The course is being offered to those students who graduated recently and whose Mcast qualification was until last year deemed to be “vocational” by the Engineering Profession Board and not eligible for professional recognition.
The issue has repeatedly made headlines in recent months after engineers questioned the courses being offered by Mcast after the college refused to supply the programme’s syllabus.
The deadline for the submission of applications is Monday
In January, a group of some 150 engineers, calling themselves the Warranted Engineers Action Group (WEAG), said they were mulling legal action against the government board for refusing to publish a report auditing the Mcast programme.
It has now emerged that information on the pre-warrant course is also not being supplied, with the only information available being a notice in The Sunday Times of Malta asking interested students to send an e-mail to the college.
According to the notice, the deadline for the submission of applications is Monday. Questions to Mcast on how many students had applied for the course, how long it would run for and whether a limit on the number of applicants would be imposed remained unanswered by the time of writing. This newspaper also asked for a copy of the course’s syllabus, but this too was not supplied.
In a statement on its website, the Chamber of Engineers said that the Engineering Profession Board has reviewed the pre-warrant course, confirming that it is due to start this month.
According to the Chamber, the board has found the content of the pre-warrant course “satisfactory”, pointing out that an independent external audit will be carried out while the course is running.
“It is only once this bridging course has been scrutinised further by the external reviewers that the bridging study will be considered satisfactory,” the Chamber insisted. It also pointed out that the attainment of the credits will be tested through formal examinations.