New e-Petition for protecting the Title ( word ) " Engineer " for Professionals .

David Parr:



1. Sorry, what I meant to say is that the IET are seen by decision makers as a leading voice on Engineering in this country, and anything that raises the profile of engineering can only be good.



2. Surely we don't give up with something we believe in just because it has failed to get anywhere in the past. Engineers should be recognised for what they do, and my belief in this is one reason I'm a PRA.



Best Regards.

 

1. 
   I’m not sure that the IET (or some other organisation) trying to claim the word ‘Engineer’ as a legally protected title is necessarily good, the IET taking that stance could be seen as elitist and exclusive or Brussels style bureaucratic. What about the ‘engineers’ who have nothing to do with any of the established engineering institutions, or those engineers where there is no established institution for their discipline? The word engineer does of course cover many disciplines, some more obvious than others, and at what level in each of these disciplines would someone be considered an engineer (heating installation engineer, heating engineer, heating design engineer). This is why I wonder how the title could be legally protected? Just imagine that long list of ‘xyz Engineer’, I doubt the character limit for a post could accommodate such a list, what would be included and what would be excluded, who would decide? I think if the IET were to attempt to support such a weak argument they would risk looking pretty foolish.

• 
  I’m not saying that the IET should give up because of past failings, I’m saying it’s a lost cause to start with, the argument ‘for’ could be quite damaging, and achieve very little in the way of promoting engineering.

I'm glad to see that someone on the EC register is seeing things through a wide angle lens and not a telephoto lens.



In order for the petition to succeed there has to over 100,000 signatories; they should also include all of the stake holders involved in the profession: from engineers - whether registered or not; from industry - who employ and pay engineers; regulators such as the Engineering Council - who can put the case for a unified title in the context of the european union and the benefits this would bring to the UK.



As such the signitaries will include the usual group of engineers who have PEI membership and EC registration and not representitives from the other stake holders mentioned above. Therefore I'm expecting the excersise to fail.



If these petitions continue on a frequent basis, it wouldn't surprise me if the response from the government to the PEIs and EC would be to sort their house in order or face losing their respective royal charters.