GIVEN the acute shortage of mechatronics engineers worldwide, executive director of the Caribbean Maritime Institute (CMI) Dr Fritz Pinnock will be partnering with stakeholders from other tertiary institutions and the government to establish a lab for the teaching of this area in an effort to qualify Jamaicans to fill these posts.

According to Dr Pinnock, mechatronics is an integrated engineering programme that combines techniques applied to mechanical, marine, electrical and informatics engineering.

“For example on board a ship, the international maritime organisation recognises that the traditional engineering can no longer manage the emerging new space, because we have an interface of a lot of technologies. So we have global positioning systems, satellites and a whole lot of different systems,” he explained.

“They have now created a new position on board ships called the eletro-mechanical technician or the electro-mechanical engineer. We at CMI tested this position and we have three such persons now working on board ships, including our own staff member. The lowest one is being paid 5,000 Euros a month tax-free, plus bonus. They report directly to the captain, not the chief engineer. Having done the survey, there is a shortage of about 4,500 people worldwide so it’s a niche market,” he said.

But apart from the need for such personnel to fill international posts, Dr Pinnock explained that there is a great need for mechatronics engineers locally. This he said will help to save the government millions in foreign currency.

“When you think of all our hospital equipment, the MRI machines and things like that, when these need to be serviced we have to send for people abroad. We can now certify our own technicians and keep our foreign exchange here. In the hospital systems, there is a huge number of machines that are just laid up that need servicing,” he said.

Dr Pinnock said that high-end car companies such as BMW and Audi, as well as processing and bottling plants, also have need for these technicians whom they often have no choice but to source from oversees.

The CMI boss said that discussions have already started to seek funding for the mechatronic labs through PetroCaribe. The tertiary institutions will also be partnering with German-based manufacturing company Festo to build these labs for teaching.

“What we are buying from them is not just the lab, but the whole syllabus and everything that comes with their certification. So we will be offering certificates that are accepted by Boeing, by Airbus, the US military, British military, BMW, all of these high-end companies,” Dr Pinnock explained.

“We want to work with JEEP (Jamaica Emergency Employment Programme), all the unemployed people, especially the unemployed engineers, we want to take them, give them a three-month to a two-year certificate in mechatronics and this is what will now get them jobs,” he said.

Dr Pinnock is hopeful that this new initiative will help to break the cycle for a lot of inner-city youth who, through the programme, will be given an opportunity to upgrade themselves and possibly secure jobs.

According to the executive director, approximately US$2-million will be needed to start the project. The building for the classrooms is to be made from containers and will be constructed on the grounds of the CMI. However, students from the HEART Trust/NTA, University of West Indies, University of Technology, Northern Caribbean University, University College of the Caribbean, International University of the Caribbean and the community colleges will be using this facility as well to receive certification in mechatronics. He said they will be depending on their logistics skills to enable them to train about 1,500 – 2,000 persons in the first batch.

“Some will be trained for the medical field, some will be trained for maintenance, some will be trained for aviation and for maritime, some for road and transport,” he said.