Back to Basics - TMIET & MIET

John, apologies for the late reply. Well qualified engineers do take up positions as technicians or mechanics because that's their first opportunity on the career ladder. I've seen a web profile of an MEng graduate working as a technician; and there are some CEngs who have worked as technicians - as revealed in previous members IEE surveys.



My reason for why the term "engineer" isn't a protected title is due to engineers choosing to become employees rather than employers or entrepreneurs.



A CEng or IEng will expect to work for an employer for 35 hrs a week and allowed to concentrate on a specialised role rather than on the entire project - design, development, testing, transportation, installation, commissioning, after care service, monitoring and analysing of data, and problem solving. In addition, they will expect to enjoy a company pension scheme, a company car, travel expense cover, perhaps free or discounted lunches and of course 5 or more weeks annual holiday on top of the public holiday. 



Under the circumstances, an employer has a right to appoint an engineer (whatever their qualification) to be involved in other aspects of the project, so that they have a full team of engineers covering all aspects of the project.



We haven't even touched upon the impact of "information technology" and how much time in the day is eaten up in: checking and replying to emails; researching huge technical documents online; producing documents on computer; understanding a variety of operating systems - computers, products, monitoring devices etc, etc. The endless meetings engineers have to attend to in order to understand what's going on in their own team as well as the rest of the company and of course report their own work to the team.  What about emergency cover when things inevitably go wrong. All this in the middle of getting one's idea to problem solving.



Unfortunately, the IET, EC and their registered members do not think of the above issues as relevant, but of their own self importance in society. That is why I don't think the IET and EC will ever succeed in getting the title of "engineer" protected exclusively for their registered members.



The bottom line is the employer is king when it comes to appointing engineers, and not the IET and EC.

In my opinion, Professional engineer (or just engineer) means one who earns a living as an engineer. Unprofessional can mean someone who doesn't act in accordance with the principles of good conduct as a professional engineer.



Non-professional or amateur engineer (or engineer) can mean someone who doesn't earn a living as an engineer; for example, one who teaches say maths or science, but not engineering or works as a finance director or recruitment consultant or is an enthusiast or retired.



The word engineer - in brackets above - applies to both professional and non-professional.



If one takes it to the next level then a retired CEng could be classed as a non-professional or just engineer, since they are no longer earning a living as an engineer.



I tend to think of the difference between a mechanic and technician - as one example - someone who repairs a vehicle, by identifying and replacing faulty or worn out parts; whereas a technician is someone who may have trained as a mechanic, but takes it to the next level, setting up instrument(s) to measure some output and analyse them against benchmark readings - for example when measuring the CO2 output from a car exhausts fume for an MOT test.



The link below doesn't explain the distinction of job roles between TMIET and MIET and how one can transfer from TMIET to MIET. There are no examples given on how the EU directive works in practice. Without examples, the meaning of the directive is theoretical. And why no EU directive for TMIET?



http://www.theiet.org/membership/types/designatory-letters/index.cfm

Roger Greenwood:

the whole website is geared towards insider use and is not very "welcoming" to outsiders, which is maybe how it is intended.