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 |
I believe that continuing education requirements are a good thing for our profession. There are a lot of changes that have affected the practice of engineering during my 30+ year career (most are technology related). Engineers who haven't pursued continuing education have fallen behind and, in the consulting community, have done a disservice to their clients, their employers and themselves. Engineers in administration need to keep current as much as engineers in design. Are they not in responsible charge of engineering work? If you aren't keeping yourself current through some form of continuing education, then perhaps it's time to give up your license and acknowledge that you aren't as qualified to do engineering as you once were. The proposed regulations offer sufficient flexibility that achieving the requirements shouldn't be an undue burden to a practicing engineer. I do think that there could be some allowance for an exemption or credits for engineering professors actively teaching engineering curriculum. If they aren't keeping current, they aren't going to be teaching long - except for that tenure thing. As a last thought... reducing the qualification requirements of an engineer isn't the correct answer to the engineering shortage.