U.K. ENGINEERING 2016 REPORT

As I don't want people to be misled by John's post above, can I just be clear to everyone (writing as a volunteer PRA and someone who has supported many applications through, 100% successfully so far (touch wood)) that you do not need experience of sales or management, or an MEng, to become CEng. Really.


You do need to be able to show awareness of the commercial environment your organisation works in (perhaps the impact on the customer of your project costs and timescales), you do need to be leading engineering activities (in other words, people need to be doing their work differently because of your input - which I see as the role of an engineer anyway), and you need to show the same level of technical understanding as would be expected of someone with an MEng. That is all quite different.


I'm commenting on this because these are long held and widespread myths that need to be repeatedly hit on the head. It directly relates to this thread - in my experience one reason (albeit minor) that professional registration levels are so low is that many people do not believe they are "qualified" when, in fact, they are. And the information presented by the IET and EC does often unfortunately contribute to this. As I said above, UKSpec needs to be read very carefully, and this is why many of us volunteer as PRAs to help people through this very misunderstood process.


It is perfectly possible to be (say) a research engineer with your highest qualification being HNC and still get CEng.


If in doubt, ask! And don't believe what anyone on a forum (myself included ) or "down the pub" says about this - get UKSpec, read it carefully, and ask through the institutes for further personal advice if neccessary.


Apologies, rant over, maybe one outcome of this report will be that the IET will make much clearer the many and varied paths to registration. I know they are trying by promoting more case studies, but based on conversations I've had with potential registrants it doesn't seem to be working 

As I don't want people to be misled by John's post above, can I just be clear to everyone (writing as a volunteer PRA and someone who has supported many applications through, 100% successfully so far (touch wood)) that you do not need experience of sales or management, or an MEng, to become CEng. Really.


You do need to be able to show awareness of the commercial environment your organisation works in (perhaps the impact on the customer of your project costs and timescales), you do need to be leading engineering activities (in other words, people need to be doing their work differently because of your input - which I see as the role of an engineer anyway), and you need to show the same level of technical understanding as would be expected of someone with an MEng. That is all quite different.


I'm commenting on this because these are long held and widespread myths that need to be repeatedly hit on the head. It directly relates to this thread - in my experience one reason (albeit minor) that professional registration levels are so low is that many people do not believe they are "qualified" when, in fact, they are. And the information presented by the IET and EC does often unfortunately contribute to this. As I said above, UKSpec needs to be read very carefully, and this is why many of us volunteer as PRAs to help people through this very misunderstood process.


It is perfectly possible to be (say) a research engineer with your highest qualification being HNC and still get CEng.


If in doubt, ask! And don't believe what anyone on a forum (myself included ) or "down the pub" says about this - get UKSpec, read it carefully, and ask through the institutes for further personal advice if neccessary.


Apologies, rant over, maybe one outcome of this report will be that the IET will make much clearer the many and varied paths to registration. I know they are trying by promoting more case studies, but based on conversations I've had with potential registrants it doesn't seem to be working