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Youngest Chartered Engineers

Having received the latest copy of Member News, I noted that there was an article about the new youngest CEng. Now, obviously it isn’t a race to get CEng and it doesn’t really matter at what age you achieve it.

But it did tweak my interest to wonder what the ages (not names, let’s keep some privacy) of the, say, 16 youngest people to achieve CEng was. Assuming the IET kept that type of information. I don’t suppose that this information is available?

I’d imagine it would be a challenge to get the youngest age that much more under 26. If a 3 year BEng can be compressed to 2 years, then possibly a MEng can be compressed down to 3. Assuming a compressed degree could achieve accreditation then that might lower it another year. However, the competences take as long as they take and it’s about being in the right place and grabbing the right opportunities.

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0 Roy Bowdler over 5 years ago

Thanks Cheong,

It is interesting how different “norms” and expectations have become established around the same milestone. The situation that you describe of gaining CEng around four years into career following an accredited degree reflects the experience of a substantial proportion of Chartered Engineers. Some of the “high-flyers” have taken this as a foundation/benchmark on which to build a career in corporate management, the law or another related field. By tradition we don’t ask them to keep proving their detailed technical skills, we have welcomed their ongoing contribution as “engineers by training”. However for many years now the average age of a new CEng registrant has been late thirties (ie a “20 year veteran”), so the experience of a significant proportion of Chartered Engineer registrants this century is different.

I haven’t conducted a formal study of this, but the trend creates issues and difficulties around consistency that I won’t explore here. What I have suggested is that we try to “normalise” the idea that every aspiring engineer should seek to professionally benchmark themselves by the age of 25 at the latest. For some that would lead to the award of Chartered Engineer and for others a development plan would be needed ,perhaps with a form of recognition "banked". At present some are encouraged by their employer to gain CEng, some just drift along meaning to get round to it eventually and some just assume that they will be rejected because they “don’t have the right degree” or “aren’t posh enough” etc. Some professional institutions seem rather better than others at getting members chartered at earlier ages, which creates inconsistency and potential iniquity.
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0 Roy Bowdler over 5 years ago

Thanks Cheong,

It is interesting how different “norms” and expectations have become established around the same milestone. The situation that you describe of gaining CEng around four years into career following an accredited degree reflects the experience of a substantial proportion of Chartered Engineers. Some of the “high-flyers” have taken this as a foundation/benchmark on which to build a career in corporate management, the law or another related field. By tradition we don’t ask them to keep proving their detailed technical skills, we have welcomed their ongoing contribution as “engineers by training”. However for many years now the average age of a new CEng registrant has been late thirties (ie a “20 year veteran”), so the experience of a significant proportion of Chartered Engineer registrants this century is different.

I haven’t conducted a formal study of this, but the trend creates issues and difficulties around consistency that I won’t explore here. What I have suggested is that we try to “normalise” the idea that every aspiring engineer should seek to professionally benchmark themselves by the age of 25 at the latest. For some that would lead to the award of Chartered Engineer and for others a development plan would be needed ,perhaps with a form of recognition "banked". At present some are encouraged by their employer to gain CEng, some just drift along meaning to get round to it eventually and some just assume that they will be rejected because they “don’t have the right degree” or “aren’t posh enough” etc. Some professional institutions seem rather better than others at getting members chartered at earlier ages, which creates inconsistency and potential iniquity.
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