Empowering Engineers with Innovation Skills Crucial for Job Creation – Prof. Ochieng
Head of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Imperial College London, Prof. Washington Yotto Ochieng, has called for a shift in engineering education to incorporate innovation and entrepreneurship as key components for addressing unemployment and driving economic growth.
Delivering a lecture on the theme “Building Sustainable Smart Cities on Resilient Digital Infrastructure” during day one of the 2026 Aggrey-Fraser-Guggisberg Memorial Lectures at the University of Ghana, Prof. Ochieng stressed that universities must move beyond traditional technical training and empower engineering students with the skills needed to develop start-ups and commercially viable innovations.
According to him, nurturing an entrepreneurial mindset among engineers will enable graduates to translate research and technological knowledge into practical solutions that address societal challenges while contributing to economic productivity and job creation.
“We must also educate our engineers to be innovative and entrepreneurial,start-ups and things like that,because the future is the youth. If the youth are very well educated, with total education and informed by research and innovation, then I think we will get what we need, including the creation of jobs and so on,” he stated.
Prof. Ochieng further noted that investment in research-driven education is critical to building a generation of professionals capable of developing resilient digital systems and infrastructure needed for modern cities. He explained that such systems will play an increasingly important role in supporting urban development, efficient service delivery, and sustainable economic activity.
The Aggrey-Fraser-Guggisberg Memorial Lectures, hosted annually by the University of Ghana, honour three individuals whose contributions significantly shaped education and infrastructure development in the Gold Coast namely James Kwegyir Aggrey, Alexander Fraser, and Gordon Guggisberg.
This year’s lecture places strong emphasis on the intersection between digital infrastructure, innovation ecosystems, and urban development.
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