I do believe that continued education requirement will be the most destructive blow to the engineering profession. I strongly recommend to scrap the proposed PE educational requirements.

I have been a PE for over 20 years and have a PhD in civil Engineering. I have been practicing for over 27 years in my profession and have over three years of teaching experience.

Engineering is not like medicine or other experimental sciences where the experts conclude something one day, and the next day change their position 180 degrees. Engineering is based on math and science. I have not heard of a new theory in my profession (structural Engineering), since I left school. There has been some minor changes in the design factors, loads and coefficients which are all reflected in the new codes. I do not know of anyone, who could practice engineering without keeping up with the changes in the codes.

The knowledge that one gets in a seminar or in a course is not enough to improve the quality of work. The engineers learn how to solve problems by working, not by attending a seminar or reading politically motived technical papers. When an engineer needs to solve a problem, she/he will be forced to become educated in the subject, take a class, or to do whatever it takes to solve the problem. Attending random seminars do not do help much.

Who is going to incur the cost of continued education? In today's economy, the engineering firms cannot keep their staff employed for long periods of time. Such expenses will put them out business faster. In my opinion, continued education program will not benefit the PE s, the organizations that hire PEs, the public and the industry, it will only make engineering less attractive in the future.