Action | Develop regulations for a mandatory continuing education requirement for architect, professional engineer, and land surveyor licenses. |
Stage | Proposed |
Comment Period | Ended on 5/2/2008 |
Many are registered in multiple states and most states have continuing education requirements. Virginia needs to study the other states' requirements and be as much the same as feasible. I can now satisfy Texas, Louisiana, and Arkansas with the same 15 hours of courses each year. Each of these states requires one hour to be in ethics each year. Louisiana has some special requirements, so I meet them and the other states are also satisfied since their requirements are broad enough to accept those courses.
I have found web based training, as offered by several sources, to make meeting continuing education requirements of the various states both easy and economical. Our employers also offer in house seminars directed to practical learning about new things. Of course the in house seminars are not certified by any educational institution. Also some personal reading gives valuable continuing education. The statute wording leads me to believe that not all of these avenues will be acceptable. It sounds like the training must be very formal and therefore expensive. Please amplify the wording by adding a couple of sentences clarifying this issue.
All engineers should be continuing to learn, so the continuing education requirements and methods of meeting them enforced by the states I know are hardly a burden. The final regulation should be crafted to assure that there is no unreasonable burden caused by some thoughtless bureaucratic wording, and that the permissable sources of education are not too narrowly limited.
I have found Virginia to be a very thoughtfully governed state, so I am confident you will get it right. Feel free to contact me if I can help in any way from this distance.
Milford Brinton, P.E.
Virginia 04368