Photo|Freddy Arango|LA PATRIA
Institutions such as the National University of Manizales expose the strategies to train their architects and engineers.
THE COUNTRY | MANIZALES
It is said that there must be synergy between the activities resulting from a construction in architectural, structural, electrical, plumbing and soil study designs. To find out how those in charge of preparing professionals in these areas are approaching it, at a time when experience is required to work, the architect Carolina Suárez Valencia, dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Architecture of the Catholic University of Manizales, refers:
“The significant transformations in the study plans of the Architecture programs lead to the fact that students must articulate from their first semesters of training the architectural design, our essence, with the constructive and structural theme to precisely avoid the difficulties that are found in the exercise of the profession. Precisely the Architecture program had a curricular renewal in 2020, seeking that articulation of theory, the structural-constructive and all the normative with the Architectural design project ”.
from the universities
The dean highlights that from the fourth semester the students assimilate what is related to technical standards, networks, and structural systems, and later they see from the current Seismic Resistance Standard to field practices by visiting works, which is essential in training. “That they can see how the foundation is made, an electrical, hydraulic installation or those that correspond at the time of the work. The ethical part is also worked on, which is the institutional characteristic and the pedagogical model of the University, because we are people and also architects”.
Santiago Ruiz Herrera, dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Architecture (FIA) of the National University of Colombia, Manizales, states that they have several strategies for the six undergraduate or careers (Architecture and Civil, Electrical, Electronic, Industrial, and Chemical engineering ).
It mentions the business practices or internships that students in their last semester do as part of their degree work, obeying an inter-institutional agreement between the company and the University; academic outings in this or other cities.
He adds that there are theoretical-practical subjects, others of a workshop type, and that many times they make up work teams of three or four students to develop a project that helps solve business problems. They have chairs, through agreements with companies so that they accompany the professors in subjects where company information is disclosed, and interdisciplinary workshops attended by students not only from a single major or undergraduate, but from several undergraduates. “They are given an external problem and in work teams of three or four, they develop a project of what is the idea of how to solve it.”
No less important, he affirms, the National has three mission axes: the academy, the investigation and the extension. “To be a teacher I need to research and innovate, bringing knowledge to companies and acquiring information from them to later transfer that experience to students in the classroom. We have extension projects with the Mayor’s Office, the Governor’s Office, the Chec, among others, where It is required to have linked auxiliary students”.
For work
For Eliana María Carmona Gómez, regional coordinator of SENA’s visionary processes, what characterizes the institution is the comprehensive theoretical-practical strategy.
“We want the apprentice to fully develop their training process and their skills because our training is for work, that all this training strategy comes from the world of work through the identification of labor competency standards required by the productive sector in an occupation or trade and that when he comes from there he returns there”.
He argues that for this reason, SENA apprentices, from their training, not only have a theoretical approach but also a practical one that is reinforced throughout the process so that, in addition to acquiring knowledge from knowledge, they also obtain knowledge from their performances and from the products they deliver. “The norm has these three fronts, not only knowing how to know, but knowing how to do and knowing how to be, this being the focus of our comprehensive training.”
About the regulation
According to the architect Elkin Arias Hoyos, inspector of the Second Urban Curatorship, the regulation comes from Law 400 of 1997, but due to events such as the collapse of the Space building in Medellín, Decree 14 of 2015 was issued with which it was included as experience requirement.
Subsequently, with Law 17 of 2017, minimum experience times were set for the architect, the calculation engineer, the independent reviewer, the geotechnician and the construction manager, all involved with the construction, both to obtain a license and for the professional exercise. “Before, the recent graduate, as long as his professional card was up to date, might sign architectural projects or as a responsible builder.”
The new standards were more rigorous with architects, because the designer or planner, for example, does not require any experience and from the moment he obtains his professional card he can carry out and sign architectural and urban designs as a responsible professional. “The same does not happen if you are going to work as a responsible builder, there Law 17 of 2017 requires minimum experience times: for the architect and the engineer, a minimum of three years or a specific postgraduate degree, regardless of the built area (small house or big building)”.
In relation to the calculation engineer and the independent reviewer, there are two situations: a minimum experience of five years or a postgraduate degree in structures. The geotechnical engineer is required to have five specific years of experience or a postgraduate degree in geotechnics.
María del Socorro Zuluaga Restrepo, Urbana Dos curator, alludes that last semester the Curatorship had a last semester Architecture student doing his internship, which was a very interesting experience. “For him because he learned in practice how the rules for issuing licenses are applied, and for us because he was a very important support in the study of the processes.”
* Architect.
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