That Rwanda has no railway engineers is understandable; the country did not need them since it had never had a single rail. But that will soon change as the country sends its first batch of engineers to Kenya to learn the ropes.

As Rwanda and its partners in the Northern Corridor source for financing towards the construction of the highly anticipated Standard Gauge Railway, it makes sense to prepare Rwandans to actively take part in the regional project.

The only way they can occupy major technical positions is by acquiring the skills.

The government has ambitious plans to narrow the skills gap that is a hindrance to transforming this country into a knowledge-based society. Among the options was to have an open-door policy for professionals from the region, who would, in turn, impart their skills on the local workforce.

One of the pillars of the East African Community integration process is the free transfer of labour, but to date, not all member states have come on board in that area. Some countries are still overprotective of their labour market.

Hitherto fields regarded as "foreign” such as petroleum engineering are slowly making their way into the regional educational circles because of the discovery of oil in Uganda, Kenya and Southern Sudan.

Do Rwandans have to wait to strike oil before learning the skills needed in the oil sector? By now, our institutions of higher learning should have taken the leap and begun training petrochemical engineers to compete in the regional oil windfall.

Otherwise, the oil train will leave without a single Rwandan on board.