The development and implementation of the industrial engineering programme at the UTech

Answering the call for globalisation of industry and commerce, the University of Technology Jamaica (UTech), Kingston, Jamaica, has been overhauling its programmes for several years now in order to meet international standards and accreditation. An industrial engineering degree programme (BEng) is being developed and will soon be implemented at the UTech that would complement the current programme in production engineering being offered by the University. This programme aims at providing more educational prospects for students in industry and academia. There are limited opportunities available in the manufacturing industries in Jamaica for a production engineering specialist; hence, the new industrial engineering programme is envisaged to provide versatility in employment to students who are interested in manufacturing engineering, quality engineering, operations research, engineering management, ergononucs and human factors engineering. Articulation within, and external to, the faculty, along with cooperative educational opportunities, will be provided for students so that they can gain industrial experience while completing their academic studies.