Have Faith in the IET

These comments sound great.

Congratulations to those that have made ECUK registration by the apprentice or practical route. One of my best uni-lecturers never attended university.

 

IET should continue and improve the efforts of IIE and help PEs get registered at IEng or CEng even if they have not followed the pure university route.

 

Being qualified is one thing, being approved by a peer review is another (this needs to be changed).

If you are resident in the UK, working in a large industrial organisation, then you have a good chance of being accepted and registered for ECUK.

 

The ECUK recognised BScs, needs to be re-evaluated, if you are not electrical, or pure mechanical, things start to be difficult.

 

I had C&G Full Tech Certificate in production with an electrical endorsement and mathematics bridging for HNC entrance, 5 Years study, as part of my apprenticeship.

I went on to study HNC with an industrial engineering endorsement. It was not possible to go to university without A Levels.

 

After a change of career abroad, where I studied the equivalent of C&G in electronics and a taught master in nuclear physics, I came back to the UK and took distance learning BSc courses, in subjects that interested me for my then new atypical career in a field that did not exist elsewhere. My university granted me 30 ECTS for my HNC, nothing for my C&G FTC. ( as Roy has stated I had two distinct equivalents of two years university studies in two distinctly different courses), but only 30ECTS for university financial reasons.

• This is commodification.

• This is a problem with universities selling education for profit.

• This is the same as selling CEng abroad for profit, which is the IET’s main source of income and prestige.

 

Apprenticeship is the sort of engineering formation that gives the greatest overall engineering competences. It is now the main objective of political parties in the UK and Europe. There are specialised College / University combined apprenticeships springing up over the UK and in Europe

Students can go from 16 with 5 GCEs to Master or PhD in the specialised domains.

 

As Roy states and what I have been trying to put over in these blogs is that engineering is a practical trade, as is medicine, where a hard rigorous practical training is necessary to put into practice the academic theory.

Medical training is also being put into question and modernised.

 

The CEng contingent , who have only university and MBA or even no MEng at all, with little true engineering practice are in a position to criticise and block the PEs coming up to full professional registration.

 

IIE had resolved this problem, but since amalgamation we have lost this procedure due to the CEng Electrical contingent, refusing change. In other PEIs it is even worse.

 

IET members overseas will face different problems in registration of I Eng or CEng as there are no real IET structures or the structures are limited to major cities only. In this case, the PRA peer review interview, if it is not CEng electrical, risks to be a certain failure.

I have this experience from other PEIs.

 

The UK Engineering Report is under review; IET should consider all that has been said on these blogs and ensure that the future is secured for all PE s wanting to be ECUK registered.

 
IET, ICE and IMec E have joined together to dominate the report approval, wanting to dismiss the remaining PEIs that comprise ECUK.

(The remaining PEIs would have been what the objective of IIE was, an overall grouping of all PEIs)

Secondly it is suggested that IEng and Eng Tech become one grade.

 

This year is a year of change, MIETs in the UK should ensure that similar profiles to these PEs above who have been registered ECUK via the long route should be openly accepted in IET, and that all grades of membership are complementary and of equal status.,

 

The statistics of the report are shocking for a professional registration system, where most Engineers are not registered, helped or encouraged. The ECUK system has failed.

 

I feel that since 2006 IET has lost its objectives and taken the wrong route.

People making comments here prove me wrong, but I believe that they are not the ones managing IET, they are only following IET directives.

 
Does IET need new directives that meet today’s engineering challenge?

 

It is clearly stated everywhere in Europe that to get back into the harsh globalisation contest, the only solution for Europe is well trained professional engineers and specialist workers and that apprenticeship with specific academic learning at all levels is the most efficient solution.

It is recognised that the back bone of engineering is the IEng or equivalent, whatever he is called.

 

John Gowman BA-MIET