The Institution of Electrical & Electronic Technician Engineers changed it name to The Institution of Electrical & Electronic Incorporated Engineers.
There were several smaller bodies representing Incorporated Engineers and Technicians including a Mechanical equivalent.The merger of these bodies to become the Institution of Incorporated Engineers created the fourth largest constituency of Engineering Council registrants.
At the time Incorporated Engineers were described as "different but equally valuable" since they were almost exclusively drawn from the tradition of an Apprenticeship with part-time higher qualifications such as Higher National Certificates. This typically produced a "more practical" engineer ideally suited to many mainstream engineering situations. A the time of the name change many Chartered Engineers had actually traveled a similar path in the 1960s & 70s, but successive inflation of the academic "requirements" placed CEng in a more "academically elite" space . More recently, better processes for valuing work-based learning and the "competency based" UK-SPEC have changed that landscape somewhat, but this is debated in a different forum.
In a Technician context my challenge to the profession would be - how do we create an environment where Technicians are able to engage more fully and equally? It appears that most do not see the relevance of the current representative structure. Too often, I also observe patronising attitudes that seem to position Technicians as "third class". This is wrong in my opinion, many Technicians are valued by their employers to such an extent that they earn more than many Chartered Engineers, a good number are also proprietors of successful small businesses.
The Institution of Electrical & Electronic Technician Engineers changed it name to The Institution of Electrical & Electronic Incorporated Engineers.
There were several smaller bodies representing Incorporated Engineers and Technicians including a Mechanical equivalent.The merger of these bodies to become the Institution of Incorporated Engineers created the fourth largest constituency of Engineering Council registrants.
At the time Incorporated Engineers were described as "different but equally valuable" since they were almost exclusively drawn from the tradition of an Apprenticeship with part-time higher qualifications such as Higher National Certificates. This typically produced a "more practical" engineer ideally suited to many mainstream engineering situations. A the time of the name change many Chartered Engineers had actually traveled a similar path in the 1960s & 70s, but successive inflation of the academic "requirements" placed CEng in a more "academically elite" space . More recently, better processes for valuing work-based learning and the "competency based" UK-SPEC have changed that landscape somewhat, but this is debated in a different forum.
In a Technician context my challenge to the profession would be - how do we create an environment where Technicians are able to engage more fully and equally? It appears that most do not see the relevance of the current representative structure. Too often, I also observe patronising attitudes that seem to position Technicians as "third class". This is wrong in my opinion, many Technicians are valued by their employers to such an extent that they earn more than many Chartered Engineers, a good number are also proprietors of successful small businesses.
