Virginia Regulatory Town Hall View Comments

Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation

Board for Architects, Professional Engineers, Land Surveyors, Certified Interior Designers, and Landscape Architects

Board for Architects, Professional Engineers, Land Surveyors, Certified Interior Designers, and Landscape Architects Regulations [18 VAC 10 ‑ 20]

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

Previous Comment Next Comment Back to List of Comments

3/24/08 3:59 pm

Commenter: Stephen King, P.E.

Opposed to CE requirements

While I’m not a practicing engineer, directly working on design projects, I have maintained my license.

I always thought the reason for the 4 years of experience requirement, was to make sure I had some real-world experience before sitting for the PE exam. I didn’t know that meant it was time for me to stop learning, until the Commonwealth came along and made me take continuing education courses or give up my license.

The most critical capability of any professional, be it physician, dentist, architect, or engineer, is to know what you don’t know. While my license may allow me to design a bridge deck, I know I don’t have the knowledge and experience to do so. We can only stamp items in the areas where we are experienced and competent.

As a non-practicing engineer, if I want to keep my PE, and this proposal goes through, I’ll likely take the courses that are most convenient and easiest to complete. My guess is that many practicing; design engineers will do the same.

Continuing education requirements may help some individuals feel validated and help justify the existing of some associations, but they will not make better, more responsible, and competent engineers.

If there are concerns with the performance and actions of design professionals/surveyors, how about stronger action on the enforcement side? I’m personally familiar with a case where a surveyor, working for a large Virginia firm, prepared a subdivision plat, certified to represent a current field survey when in fact it did not. No surveyor had even walked on the land. His penalty from DPOR? The incredible sum of $250, with no suspension.

DPOR needs to focus doing what they do better, not focus on expanding what they do. Allow the market to continue to make engineers stay “current” in whatever their field of focus.

CommentID: 1248