A Collaborative Initiative among KOSEN for Training Professional Engineers in Infrastructure Maintenance
By T. Shimada
Concrete Journal, Vol.64, No.2, Feb. 2026
- Synopsis
- This paper reports on the KOSEN-REIM project, in which five National Institute of Technology (KOSEN) colleges (Maizuru, Fukushima, Nagaoka, Fukui, and Kagawa) closely collaborated to build a system that develops professional engineers in the field of infrastructure maintenance and cultivates practitioner-educators, while ensuring the sustainability of this initiative. With support from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology from FY2019 to FY2023, four new recurrent education centers were established at participating colleges. In addition, the project systematically implemented a technical qualification certification system for bridge maintenance, and created a system for the certification and official recognition of practitioner-educators. Through collaboration among industry, government, academia, and local communities, as well as inter-college cooperation and the establishment of the KOSEN-REIM Foundation as an external support organization, the project is expanding its sustainable human resource development system nationwide.
- Keywords:
- Infrastructure maintenance, Human resource development, Recurrent education, KOSEN-REIM, Collaboration among industry, government, academia, and local communities, Technical qualifications, Practitioner-educators
