Northern Ireland Electricity (NIE), the electricity network company in Northern Ireland, has become the first company in Northern Ireland to be accredited by the IET for its Engineering Professional Development Scheme. NIE joins only 124 accredited schemes in the UK to receive this accolade which was awarded following a rigorous assessment and audit.



IET Accreditation is an internationally recognised benchmark awarded to high quality programmes that provide an ideal preparation for aspiring professional engineers. NIE has embarked on a formal programme of encouraging and supporting more NIE employees to become IET members and Chartered Engineers. 



Accepting the award, Nicholas Tarrant, Managing Director at NIE, said: "Engineering is integral to our business and this accreditation demonstrates the quality of NIE’s electrical engineering development programme. This is a fantastic accolade and is recognition of the very high standard of our engineering staff."



IET Chief Executive Nigel Fine, who presented the award to NIE, said: "The IET is delighted to accredit the Professional Development Scheme at Northern Ireland Electricity which is clearly supported by the directors and senior engineers in the company.



"An Accredited IET Professional Development Scheme gives a developing engineer a quality assured pathway from when they join their scheme through to Professional Registration. These developing engineers are essential to the future success of industry and many of the current technical and business leaders in the engineering community started their career on such a scheme."



To find out more information on accredited schemes visit http://www.theiet.org/business/accreditation/index.cfm