DEVELOPMENT OF THE ORGANIZATION MANUAL AND SYLLABUS OF THE CIVIL DEPARTMENT OF THE ENGINEERING SCHOOL OF THE SAN CARLOS

UNIVERSITY AS PART OF THE PRE-REQUISITES TO THE ACHIVEMENT OF THE ACCREDITACION AT A CENTRAL AMERICAN LEVEL
Fernando Dvila fernando_davila@ingenieros.com Industrial Engineer Assessor: I. E. Alba Maritza Guerrero de Lpez

ABSTRACT Accreditation is an evaluating process conformed by several stages which display a series of guidelines that must be fulfilled properly to achieve that goal. Therefore, the development of the organization manual and the syllabus of the Civil Department of the Engineering School will be elaborated as part of the pre-requisites to the achievement of the accreditation at a Central American level.

To contribute with the accreditation project undertaken by the Civil Engineering School, the respective organization manual and syllabus will be elaborated in order to express the principles on which are directed the academic and occupational administration of that institution. PURPOSE In the process of contribute on the attainment of the accreditation of the Civil Engineering School and to keep monitoring the continuous improvement and development of it, will be evaluated the way that its current organizational structure and the integration of the curriculum of the career that dependent on it, with the purpose of elaborating legally and formally two documents that will help the School and the people who are related directly to it. The first step will be to create a syllabus of the Civil Engineering career, with the primary purpose of benefit the students of it, allowing them to become concisely acquainted with the areas that their career is divided and on how those are related with the professional environment, also to know the distribution of the respective courses of each area based on the curriculum of that academic unit and especially the

Civil Engineering School, Accreditation, organization manual, syllabus, requisite, organizational structure, curriculum.

TOPIC DEVELOPMENT In order to create highly competitive professionals within the national laboral market field, the Engineering School of the San Carlos University of Guatemala has been working since 2007 to obtain the accreditation of all its careers at a regional Central American level, being the Civil Engineering one among the ones that are currently in that process.

cognitive tools that they will acquire to become a productive professional for the Guatemalan society. On the other hand, the organization manual of the School will be structured in an proper way, in which will be established the principles in which it works, its reason to be, its commitment towards the members who integrate who compose it, and the most important, the responsibilities that the executives must take. This, as a whole, will allow creating an entity that will work day by day to obtain the best for its graduates, for the full satisfaction of its executives and its teachers, and the most important, that adopts the concept of Continuous Improvement in the administrative performance. MANUAL AND SYLLABUS ELABORATION PROPOSAL The outline of the organization manual of the Civil Engineering School is integrated by two large sections: first, the organizational framework legal, where describes the basic aspects of the strategic planning (mission, vision, objectives, functions, values and quality policy) that set the development of the activities in the School, and second, the organizational structure of this academic unit, that includes the organization of the areas and departments which conformed it, as well as a detailed description of the job positions performed by the administrative personnel and teachers that are part of it.

Chart I. Job Positions Civil Engineering School

NOMINAL STAND Titular Professor Titular Professor Titular Professor Titular or Interim Professor Titular or Interim Professor Assistant I or II Secretary II FUNCTIONAL STAND Civil Engineering School Director Department Chief Area Coordinator Cathedra Professor Laboratory Instructor Professor Cathedra Assistant Civil Engineering School Secretary

Also, the syllabus will be divided en two integrated sections. The Syllabus section specifies to the student how the academic cycle is developed in the Engineering School, emphasizing the pre and post requirements to take any course and also in the ways of evaluation that are used. Finally, in the Curriculum section, there is a detailed description of the current courses program of the Civil Engineering career, providing a guide to the student on how it is developed the career during its 10 semesters. Figure 1. Syllabus interpretation of the Civil Engineering career

IMPLANTATION Once integrated the content of the organization manual and syllabus, those documents would have to go into a process of correction, validation and authorization, the last will be conducted by the Directive Board of Directors of the Engineering School, to record that those documents are legally approved for its publication and use. The Management of the Civil Engineering School, working together with the headmen and coordinators of the departments, areas, and other academic extensions which conform it, must elaborate a simple and effective work plan to proceed with the publication of those documents among its personnel. It is imperative to reevaluate and revise the organization manual and the syllabus every certain period of time so they will always be active, bounded to future fittings of the School to contribute to the continuous improvement of this academic unit. CONCLUSIONS The organization manual and the syllabus are means of communications that will assist in the improvement of the administrative and academic operations of the Civil Engineering School, since includes important information that, due to wrong spreading, it was unknown by many of its members. RECOMMENDATIONS To ensure the validity of the organization manual and the syllabus, the content of both documents should be revised annually, adapting them to the modifications made in the organizational structure of the School as well as in the curriculum of the Civil Engineering School.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Facultad de Ingeniera, USAC. Catlogo de Estudios de la Facultad de Ingeniera. Guatemala: Editorial Universitaria, 2005. Lefcovich, Mario. 2005. La mejora continua aplicada a la educacin. Internet. Disponible en: www.sabetodo.com/EEpZyVEwtj.php Sin autor. 1998. Guas para la evaluacin del personal docente. Internet. Disponible en: ponce.inter.edu/contents/RecHumanosGuiasEvalPersonalDocente.htm Sin autor. 2005. Gua tcnica para la elaboracin de manuales de organizacin. Internet. Disponible en: www.sre.gob.mx/normateca/ historico/guia_elab_manu_org.pdf

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS God, my family, friends, I. E. Alba Maritza Guerrero, Civil Engineering School.

Fernando Dvila Industrial Engineer Engineering School, USAC

CURRICULUM Assistant of the subjects Preparation and Evaluation of Projects 1, Economic Engineering 1 and Technical Language 1, USAC. Technical Assistant in the development of a construction project of a natural rubber processing plant in Cobn, Alta Verapaz.