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Value in IEng Registration

Allan Rowan
Afternoon all, just sitting behind a laptop screen pondering and found myself plotting course for my career progression and seemingly unlikely professional registration for CEng.


My current employer has encouraged that I achieve CEng registration (easier said than done) and any promotion to the next grade would be subject to attaining CEng. I'm wary of submitting my application for CEng due to not having an adequate level of education (I have a Bachelors degree only)  and at my age there's little chance of me returning to university for further study. I'm employed as a senior engineer and acting principal engineer within a project I'm currently commissioned. I appreciate that working at a principal engineer level does not necessarily provide the evidence required to prove that my understanding and knowledge is at a MEng level.


Rewind a few years, I was reasonably proud of successful registration and to achieve IEng, however, to date I'm of the opinion that it has done little else other than measurement / benchmark of my competence and identify area's in which I need to strengthen. My employer (at the time of registration) did not professionally recognise IEng registration and from my own observations nor do other employers (that I've noticed). A cursory glance of job listings on LinkedIn, shall normally state a requirement for applicants to hold CEng registration or working towards CEng with no mention of IEng. There's an immense pressure to achieve Chartership and with failure to do so could be possibly observed as I'm either inadequate or not quite cutting the grade by a prospective or current employer.


Is there any value to the IEng registration other than a personal achievement and worth maintaining? I imagine the nervousness and apprehension about navigating the CEng route and the fear of failure that I'm not unique in this respect and other's may have a similar story? Not sure what I would wish to hear, but knowing of others that succeeded with a similar background and level of education would provide some encouragement.


Regards,

Allan. 

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    Good luck Colin, I ‘m very supportive of Technician Electricians and “mainstream Engineers”. Some of the mainstream are called in many countries “Technologists”, on the basis of holding a more “applied” or slightly shorter degree, with less emphasis on theoretical maths and science.


    The “mainstream” also includes most Chartered Engineers, who are simply good competent professionals. The threshold of CEng has been set for many decades at around the age of 25-26. This leaves plenty of room for growth beyond the threshold. However, it is important to understand that this “chartered status”, is an essential element for admission into “polite society”. Without it you may gain some recognition and respect, but always with limitations explicit or implicit.

    I won’t list here the organisations which either deny admission to non-chartered engineers, offer inferior membership, or allow patronising attitudes to flourish, which would be condemned if they were based on gender or race. Any reader is welcome to do their own research. Over recent years many have de-emphasised the chartered pre-requisite, but almost everyone in control is CEng. Even if like me, they haven’t done much “real” engineering for years.    

    If we are ever to have any hope of growing the numbers of Technicians and mainstream engineers/technologists, engaged in Engineering Council registration, then they must find respect for what they have achieved and opportunities to develop in ways that help their careers, not prescriptions handed down from various ivory towers, with those ensconced in them steeped in outdated practices, snobbery and class distinction.  


    This is less of a problem in the military because people are used to a stratified system of ranks and top-down control.  

    For the avoidance of doubt, in my opinion we should support excellence in all its forms, including academic, scientific research etc. However, we are stuck in the mindset of aggrandising a minority, selling affiliation to this “high status” to some more and diminishing the majority of competent practitioners of good conduct.  

    I’m actually even more supportive of CEng and high standards (e.g. “masters level”), because as it stands it’s the only good product we have to offer. The others have some value, but limitations and image problems. Not least the assumption that any CEng is “higher” than them.    

    What really frustrates me is that a career in engineering and technology can offer so much to so many people. Many will be happy to earn well and practice as a professional technician, some will become more managerial, others may have an aptitude for an analytical science-based approach or be talented mathematicians etc. 

    If the IET genuinely wants to serve these people equally, then it needs to use its influence to reform the profession. It is more than 3 years since Prof Uff reported and his findings were hardly news!  I could and probably did write something similar to this a decade ago. Has anything changed, beyond a few platitudes and subtle changes of spin?                             

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  • 0
    Good luck Colin, I ‘m very supportive of Technician Electricians and “mainstream Engineers”. Some of the mainstream are called in many countries “Technologists”, on the basis of holding a more “applied” or slightly shorter degree, with less emphasis on theoretical maths and science.


    The “mainstream” also includes most Chartered Engineers, who are simply good competent professionals. The threshold of CEng has been set for many decades at around the age of 25-26. This leaves plenty of room for growth beyond the threshold. However, it is important to understand that this “chartered status”, is an essential element for admission into “polite society”. Without it you may gain some recognition and respect, but always with limitations explicit or implicit.

    I won’t list here the organisations which either deny admission to non-chartered engineers, offer inferior membership, or allow patronising attitudes to flourish, which would be condemned if they were based on gender or race. Any reader is welcome to do their own research. Over recent years many have de-emphasised the chartered pre-requisite, but almost everyone in control is CEng. Even if like me, they haven’t done much “real” engineering for years.    

    If we are ever to have any hope of growing the numbers of Technicians and mainstream engineers/technologists, engaged in Engineering Council registration, then they must find respect for what they have achieved and opportunities to develop in ways that help their careers, not prescriptions handed down from various ivory towers, with those ensconced in them steeped in outdated practices, snobbery and class distinction.  


    This is less of a problem in the military because people are used to a stratified system of ranks and top-down control.  

    For the avoidance of doubt, in my opinion we should support excellence in all its forms, including academic, scientific research etc. However, we are stuck in the mindset of aggrandising a minority, selling affiliation to this “high status” to some more and diminishing the majority of competent practitioners of good conduct.  

    I’m actually even more supportive of CEng and high standards (e.g. “masters level”), because as it stands it’s the only good product we have to offer. The others have some value, but limitations and image problems. Not least the assumption that any CEng is “higher” than them.    

    What really frustrates me is that a career in engineering and technology can offer so much to so many people. Many will be happy to earn well and practice as a professional technician, some will become more managerial, others may have an aptitude for an analytical science-based approach or be talented mathematicians etc. 

    If the IET genuinely wants to serve these people equally, then it needs to use its influence to reform the profession. It is more than 3 years since Prof Uff reported and his findings were hardly news!  I could and probably did write something similar to this a decade ago. Has anything changed, beyond a few platitudes and subtle changes of spin?                             

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