Engineering diploma holders in trouble

The Bangladesh Embassy has asked the Ministry of Education in Bangladesh to evaluate the Bangladeshi Diploma in Engineering certificate.

This is being done at the request of over 500 Bangladeshi Engineering Diploma holders in the UAE who are finding it difficult to get a job or a promotion.

Describing the subject as 'very complex', Bangladesh Ambassador, Hasan Mashhud Choudhary, said: "The Bangladeshi Engineering Diploma holders are finding it difficult to get their diploma certificate recognised by the authorities in the UAE.

"The engineering diploma is a three-year course. This diploma can be studied for immediately after matriculation, which is Grade 10.

The certificate which is issued by the institute in Bangladesh fails to mention the number of years put in by the diploma holder. It simply mentions that so and so has cleared the diploma in engineering in a certain year.

"As a result, the UAE authorities view it as a one-year diploma instead of a three-year one. I have already sent a letter outlining the problem to the Bangladesh State Minister, A.N.M. Ehsanul Hoque, in Dhaka.

"The minister has given me his assurance that the matter will be taken up at the earliest. He has said he will send a letter to the Bangladesh Technical Education Board to look into the matter and get in touch with their counterparts in the UAE.

"If the Bangladesh Ministry of Education is able to sort out the matter with its counterpart in the UAE it will undoubtedly benefit all the engineering diploma holders, enabling them to grow in their profession".

The Bangladesh Diploma Engineers' Welfare Society in the UAE has also sent a memorandum on the matter to the Bangladesh Minister of State for Education. It says that the UAE Ministry of Higher Education has stopped receiving their certificate for evaluation in order to study the position of Polytechnic Institutes in Bangladesh.

According to the society's members, the Bangladesh Technical Education Board has not yet notified the UAE Ministry of Higher Education of the length of time involved in studies for the diploma and of the course outline of the Diploma in Engineering.