NTC Moves Towards Sydney Accord Provisional Signatory Status
A significant step has been taken by the National Technology Council (NTC) towards obtaining temporary signatory status to the Sydney Accord. Members of the Accord are referred to as signatories, and it is an international agreement for mutual recognition of qualifications in the field of engineering technology.
Aspiring nations must have two mentors who assist in obtaining provisional signatory status and are acknowledged by the Sydney Accord in order to petition for signatory status. NTC is collaborating with Malaysia and New Zealand for this aim. While Malaysia has not yet made a decision, New Zealand has proposed Dr. Paul Wilson, Managing Director, Vintage Lane Consulting Limited, NZ, as a mentor.
To discuss this, an online meeting was arranged, and the following people showed up: Dr. Wilson, mentor; Bret Williams, global manager of engineering, New Zealand; Nasir Shah, director general of the Quality Assurance Agency, HEC; and Fahd Amin, assistant director of NTC.
Bret Williams and Paul Dr. Wilson were commended by the NTC Chairman for their willingness to assist NTC in obtaining provisional signatory status. He clarified that Chairman HEC is in charge of NTC, which is a HEC subsidiary with complete administrative, financial, and academic authority. To be a signatory, one must fundamentally possess this autonomy.
“Being a signatory to the Sydney Accord will be a crucial step for Pakistani engineering technology graduates and give our skilled manpower global recognition,” stated the Chairman of the NTC.
“With the ongoing support from HEC, we at NTC are grateful to all the stakeholders and we are hopeful to achieve the signatory status of the Sydney Accord,” he stated.
It is important to note that the mentor must physically participate in one or two NTC accreditation visits as part of the mentoring activity. Dr. Wilson’s visitation has been tentatively scheduled for September 2024.
Many questions about protocols, the separation of HEC and NTC’s regulatory obligations to prevent duplication, the frequency of regulatory visits, etc., were brought up during the conversation. Bret Williams and Dr. Wilson were completely satisfied with the clarifications provided by Imtiaz Gilani, Nasir Shah, and Fahd Amin.
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