The legal profession instituted mandatory continuing education.  Malpractice claims and bar complaints went down.  Experience has shown that professionals benefit from a minimum amount of upgrading.  I would like to think that a professional in any field would want to upgrade his skills without mandatory requirements.  But I know his is not true.  With the wide variety of continuing education programs available, there is always something of value to every engineer.  I just cannot believe there is a professional engineer practicing that feels he knows it all and would not benefit from continuing education.  In the legal profession, in Virginia, every practitioner is able to find enough credits for free that there is no cost associated with continuing education.  Malpractice carriers offer free continuing education simply because it saves them money by reducing the number of claims.  Insurance companies think with their heads, not with their hearts.