By: Dr. Rex Casiple
THE Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) Board of Mechanical Engineering announced that a total of 3,928 out of 5,563 examinees, or 70.61%, passed in the Mechanical Engineers Licensure Examination given in seven (7) testing centers nationwide last August 2019.
The Technological University of the Philippines – Visayas ranked fifth (91.88% passing) in the category of 50 or more examinees and with at least 80% passing percentage.
In the category of 10 to 49 examinees and with at least 80% passing percentage, Central Philippine University ranked No. 1 (100% passing) while Central Philippine State University in Kabankalan City, Negros Occidental, ranked No. 7 (91.67% passing).
In the regional level, 7 engineering schools in Western Visayas out of 13, or 54%, performed high or with a passing percentage higher than that of the national level – two (2) in Iloilo City, two (2) in Negros Occidental, one (1) in Bacolod City, one (1) in Roxas City and one (1) in Antique.
The high performing engineering schools from Region 6 with more than 10 examinees are TUP-Visayas, Central Philippine University, Central Philippine State University, ISAT University, Colegio San Agustin – Bacolod and Capiz State University.
Five (5) out of 7 high performing engineering schools in the Region, or 71%, are state universities while 2 are private higher education institutions (PHEIs). The region produced 379 passers out of 466 takers, or 81.33% passing percentage. This is higher than the national passing percentage.
There were 46 repeaters who took the said examination and 420 first takers. Twenty (20) repeaters passed or 43.48% passing percentage, while the first takers passing percentage is 85.5%. Repeaters pulled down the Regional passing performance.
The country’s need for more registered mechanical engineers (RME) and professional mechanical engineers (PME) in the next 3 to 5 years was noted during the 8th Mechanical Engineering Educator’s Congress conducted by the Philippine Society of Mechanical Engineers (PSME) National Chapter in Philippine Columbian Association, Paco, Manila on August 29-30, 2019.
The theme of the Congress was “Advancing the Role of the Mechanical Engineering Educators in the Nation’s BUILD, BUILD, BUILD program.” The Congress tackled the proposed Mechanical Engineering Road map where the role of the Commission on Higher Education, the Industry and the Academe is crucial.
It is noted that 80% of the total number of mechanical engineers nationwide are millennials. These mechanical engineers are the designers of the future mechanical engineering technologies, such as solar power plant, wind power plant, electric cars, flying cars, autonomous cars and other artificial technologies.
In the past years, there was a noted increase in solar-generated and wind-generated power supplies and increase in the number of electric cars and autonomous cars in the world.
According to the Future of Jobs Report in the world economic forum, the top ten skills required for an engineer in 2020 are skills in solving complex problems, critical thinking, creativity, people management skills, coordinating skills, emotional intelligence, skills in judgment and decision making, service orientation, negotiating skills and cognitive flexibility.
There is a noted increase in enrolment of Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering this academic year (AY) 2019-2020 following the reduction in the number of years covering the program from 5 to only four (4) years due to the implementation of K-12 or senior high school program three years ago.
Many mechanical engineering professors were claiming the poor performance of the first batch of K-12 graduates or the incoming new mechanical engineering students in the last two years. There are suggestions from some engineering schools to revisit and, if needed, to revise the current Grade 11 and Grade 12 curricula to make them in line with the existing four-year BS Mechanical Engineering program.
