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Time for licenced Engineers?

Former Community Member over 6 years ago

As a result of a discussion within a Linkedin group. I had originally raised the issue of the EC UK or IET legally licencing Engineers and had agreed to bring this discussion from Linkedin to the IET members in an appropriate community for a frank and open debate.

The circumstances surrounding this discussion was the tragedy of Grenfell Towers and my personal observation that some of the alleged decision makers, had no technical qualifications to make decisions on public safety. I am wondering how far the inquiry will go to reveal that issue.

As I currently work in Canada we do have an act of law governing the conduct of its licenced Engineers and this makes the Engineer have some higher degree of responsibility for public safety.

Questions

1) Given the impact of Grenfell, does EC(UK) have to now start considering licencing? What are the perceived hurdles to achieve this?

2) If not. What can we do within our profession to improve pubic safety with an objective to prevent another 'Grenfell' ?

I am Interested to get IET members responses.

Parents

0 Simon Barker over 6 years ago
Before we got a licencing system for engineers, we would need:
To persuade the public that "engineer" was a specific profession, not just a catch-all word for people who fix things.

To persuade the government that we even need a licencing scheme for engineers.

To come up with a sufficiently robust definition of "engineer", and what things are and are not "engineering".

On 2, I don't think the government will be too impressed if this just looks like a scheme for increasing the salary and status of a small group of people who are members of specific institutions, at the expense of everybody else. You would have to come up with a specific safety or financial case why it is good for the country as a whole.

On 3, the government has a lousy track record of defining things properly in legislation. What's to stop employers simply re-naming their job titles from "engineer" to "designer" and claiming that what they do isn't covered by the legislation?

And, when push comes to shove, most of what's being discussed on these forums is primarily a scheme for increasing the salary and status of a small group of people who are members of specific institutions.
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0 Simon Barker over 6 years ago
Before we got a licencing system for engineers, we would need:
To persuade the public that "engineer" was a specific profession, not just a catch-all word for people who fix things.

To persuade the government that we even need a licencing scheme for engineers.

To come up with a sufficiently robust definition of "engineer", and what things are and are not "engineering".

On 2, I don't think the government will be too impressed if this just looks like a scheme for increasing the salary and status of a small group of people who are members of specific institutions, at the expense of everybody else. You would have to come up with a specific safety or financial case why it is good for the country as a whole.

On 3, the government has a lousy track record of defining things properly in legislation. What's to stop employers simply re-naming their job titles from "engineer" to "designer" and claiming that what they do isn't covered by the legislation?

And, when push comes to shove, most of what's being discussed on these forums is primarily a scheme for increasing the salary and status of a small group of people who are members of specific institutions.
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Time for licenced Engineers?

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