I think you're mixing up membership and professional registration there. Membership, as you say, is for the benefit of members to share experience and knowledge. (Actually there was a time when MIET, or at least MIEE, was seen as a mark of professional standing, but I think those days have gone.)

Professional Registration is set by EC so that all interested parties can have confidence that the registered engineer is competent to carry their role, those interested parties being employers, insurance companies, courts, clients, etc etc. It is most definitely NOT about career progression, as I've written here over and over again an EngTech could be CEO, an IEng the Operations Manager under them, and the CEng the lowly engineer working for them! That's absolutely fine, unless they're going to start ignoring the technical decisions made by the CEng - in which case why did they bother employing them!

The standard for CEng, IEng and EngTech is set by EC in UK Spec. There's nothing secret about it, and I'd be surprised if anyone greatly disagreed with its content. The IET, like all the PEIs, is “licensed” (that may not be the correct word) to award CEng, IEng and EngTech on behalf of EC, but all it decide is whether they meet, or not, UKSpec.

I'll stop there.

Cheers, Andy

I think you're mixing up membership and professional registration there. Membership, as you say, is for the benefit of members to share experience and knowledge. (Actually there was a time when MIET, or at least MIEE, was seen as a mark of professional standing, but I think those days have gone.)

Professional Registration is set by EC so that all interested parties can have confidence that the registered engineer is competent to carry their role, those interested parties being employers, insurance companies, courts, clients, etc etc. It is most definitely NOT about career progression, as I've written here over and over again an EngTech could be CEO, an IEng the Operations Manager under them, and the CEng the lowly engineer working for them! That's absolutely fine, unless they're going to start ignoring the technical decisions made by the CEng - in which case why did they bother employing them!

The standard for CEng, IEng and EngTech is set by EC in UK Spec. There's nothing secret about it, and I'd be surprised if anyone greatly disagreed with its content. The IET, like all the PEIs, is “licensed” (that may not be the correct word) to award CEng, IEng and EngTech on behalf of EC, but all it decide is whether they meet, or not, UKSpec.

I'll stop there.

Cheers, Andy