My primary interest is the role of the Professional Engineering Institutions (PEIs) in the 21st century, specifically the IET during the coming 5-25 years. The IET is a membership body, a professional body, a learned institution, and a charity, all at the same time, plus it has commercial activities which help fund its other activities. Many of its activities and responsibilities are already experiencing competition from non-traditional sources, for example:
- publishing continues to change dramatically under the impact from knowledge sharing via the Internet
- professional meetings are increasingly being delivered as webinars
- professional competence is increasingly judged by reputation and personal recommendations again facilitated by the Internet
As Council and Board member, I will argue for a zero-based assessment of the future role(s) of the IET.
A major change in the world of work is the continuing rise of the independent knowledge worker (IKW) and the ongoing importance of the small- and medium-sized enterprises (SME). While the IET works closely with Government and the larger companies, the IET could do more for, offer more to, the IKWs and SMEs. While I was Chair of the Consultants’ PN we were particularly aware of the IKW issue and arranged a number of activities which helped many engineers transition from conventional employment to independence. I will work to devise and implement more initiatives to address the needs of these important sectors.
The IET currently has some 160K members, of which somewhere between 5-10K are involved in the Institution’s activities in some way. I would like to see increased member engagement, which requires a much better understanding of the things which members value, and would value, and at the same time a better understanding of the reasons members do not currently involve themselves more. I will work to increase the Institution’s understanding in these areas and attempt to make active involvement both more attractive and easier.
The IET is not the only professional engineering institution and the challenges it faces are not unique. I believe we can be more effective if the Professional Engineering Institutions (PEIs) work more closely together and I will encourage closer collaboration. This is also true of the IET in countries other than the UK. For example, while I was Chair of the Benelux local network I implemented close collaboration among all of the PEIs active in the Benelux, local and UK based, resulting in a much broader and fuller offering to Benelux members of all the PEIs.
I would welcome the opportunity to discuss these issues with members now and, if elected, throughout my term of office.
