Engineer Professional Status recognition - UK Petition

patto_chan

I saw a reference to this in the May 07 issue of the Engineers Journal published by Engineers Ireland (formerly known as the IEI).

The originator of this petition is frustrated that in the UK almost anyone (mechanics, electricians etc) can call themselves an engineer thereby devaluing the professional title.

Online Petition to UK Gov (BTW, this petition is only open to UK citizens.)

I am at a point where due to the lack of respect by the Government, the media in particular the BBC, and society as a whole, I feel there is little point staying in the UK. Car mechanics,Plumbers and Electricians are now commonly referred to as Engineers and Banks now regard Engineers as non/semi skilled.

Any opinions on this?
I think in Ireland the title of 'Engineer' is still a respected one.

FWIW, I'm a Chartered Engineer (CEng MIEI). For the first 10 years of my career I worked abroad and didn't pay much attention to professional titles etc. It's only since I got back to Ireland that I joined the IEI.

ScabbyLeg

I've just finished an engineering degree in UL, and have noticed while on the lookout for jobs that in the UK some companies seem to refer to the equivalent 4 year degree as a Masters! They do seem to recognise that our Irish degrees have the same standard, though.

godtabh

Engineers in the likes of German have a lot more respect than they would in Ireland and UK.

Years ago engineering was a decent job in terms of profession but not any more.

Dont think that thing about the bank is right though. You tell them your a civil, eletrical engineer etc they wont confuse you with domestic water engineer. And also describing a plumber as semi-skillked isnt right either

DublinDilbert

patto_chan wrote:

Any opinions on this?
I think in Ireland the title of 'Engineer' is still a respected one.

In Ireland it has got less clear in the past few years as they've introduced Ordinary Degrees & Honors Degrees. They say that this was to keep more inline with england, but i see it as a bad thing. There is people out there with a 3 year diploma (ordinary degrees) saying that they have an engineering degree, which simply isn't the case.

Also since the IT's have been able to award degrees (Honors degrees) in the last few years they seem to just add 1 year onto their diploma (ordinary degrees) courses and there you go...

In Canada, where i lived for 3 years, they are very strict about who can & can't call themselves an engineer.... for example if you complete a certain number of Microsoft IT exams ( &pay them lots of money), you are awarded the MCSE (Microsoft Certified System Engineer ) qualification by them. In the documentation about the MCSE qualification it explicitly says that you cannot use this qualification/term in Canada.

In Ireland i believe there is no protection for professional qualifications, as far as i know you can open up an architects office in the morning, call yourself and architect and no one can stop you ( ie the qualification/term has no legal standing ).

Johnniep

DublinDilbert wrote:

Also since the IT's have been able to award degrees (Honors degrees) in the last few years they seem to just add 1 year onto their diploma (ordinary degrees) courses and there you go...

This is not exactly correct AFAIK. We I was in college, DIT, if you did the technician course (now an ordinary degree course) you could get a distinction in your cert and transfer internally to the 2nd year of the degree (honours) course. If you went on to get your diploma, if you obtained a distinction, you could then transfer to 3rd year of the honours degree course. I believe this is still the case from ordinary to honours degree.

As for the use of the title "Engineer", I do object to people using the title if they do not have the qualifications!! Kind of annoying when a janitor calls themselves a "Building Maintenance Engineer" and so on...... I believe the IEI are looking into resolving this but nothing yet..........

DublinDilbert

Johnniep wrote:

This is not exactly correct AFAIK. We I was in college, DIT, if you did the technician course (now an ordinary degree course) you could get a distinction in your cert and transfer internally to the 2nd year of the degree (honours) course. If you went on to get your diploma, if you obtained a distinction, you could then transfer to 3rd year of the honours degree course. I believe this is still the case from ordinary to honours degree.

As for the use of the title "Engineer", I do object to people using the title if they do not have the qualifications!! Kind of annoying when a janitor calls themselves a "Building Maintenance Engineer" and so on...... I believe the IEI are looking into resolving this but nothing yet..........

Your correct in what you say about the DIT, that is the route i also took.... I done 3 years for a diploma, then transfered into 3rd year of the degree program, so it took 5 years in total...

But i believe things in some of the ITs are different, not sure if all the ITs are the same, but I know that we hired someone recently, he done a 3 year diploma + 1 year for a degree..

fishdog

I am a qualified electrician, it took 4 years for me to get that qualification. I have never reffered to myself as an engineer. However while working as an electrician over the last 16 years I have come across many people calling themselves "alarm engineers". This seems to be code for "no fomal qualifications whatsoever except for maybe a 6 week Fas course". This annoys me!

There is people out there with a 3 year diploma (ordinary degrees) saying that they have an engineering degree, which simply isn't the case.

I am not doing a full time 3 year electrical engineering ordinary level degree in DIT. I know the hounours level degree is a far higher qualification, but when I complete my 3 years I will have a degree, even though it is ordinary level.

dahamster

DublinDilbert wrote:

but I know that we hired someone recently, he done a 3 year diploma + 1 year for a degree..

Yeah but you hired him. I am sure however that his course would not be accredited by the IEI as meeting the educational requirements for full membership status and thus he couldn't ever be Mr X CEng MIEI.