HEALTHCARE ESTATES 2019 KEYNOTES
Competence (UK-SPEC), and therefore, professional registration. He said: “We hold the national Register, and license the 36 professional engineering institutions (or ‘PEIs’) to work on our behalf to peer review and admit people to that Register. We hold the four titles: Engineering Technician (EngTech); Incorporated Engineer (IEng); Chartered Engineer (CEng), and Information and Communications Technology Technician (ICTTech) – in all there are some 230,000 engineering professionals at these four levels on the Register.”
The organisation’s ‘vision’ The Engineering Council’s ‘vision’ was that ‘society continues to have confidence and trust in the engineering profession’. The speaker told delegates: “Being an engineer, and calling yourself one, is not a statutory given. In essence, anybody can call themselves an ‘engineer’ in the UK, but you can’t call yourself a ‘Chartered Engineer’ unless you are on the Engineering Council Register.” The Engineering Council also had ‘a mission’ to maintain that international standard. The speaker said: “We have such things as the Washington Accord, designed to enable mobility for Chartered Engineers around the world – some 20 countries have signed up the Dublin Accord, and the Sydney Accord. These are critical, particularly for our young generation of engineers coming through – in that they allow them to work in different countries deploying their skills and expertise, and help create a future career path for them.” Such accords were also key, the speaker said, to the Engineering Council and the UK engineering profession being able to encourage others into the UK, and equally to providing reciprocity in terms of qualifications and registers that engineers from other countries might need.
‘Strategic aims’
Alasdair Coates explained that the Engineering Council’s three ‘strategic aims’ were: n To provide public benefit. n To maintain and operate globally recognised standards. n To meet future needs.
Here he put up a slide showing the logos of all the 36 professional UK engineering institutions for which the Engineering Council is the regulatory body, which he said highlighted ‘the extremely diverse fields’ in which they operated. He said: “Just look at the spectrum of engineering activity covered – you, for example, have electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, civil engineering, healthcare, water, lighting, highways; you name it – there is just about every area encompassed. I think it’s really important
62 Health Estate Journal January 2020
The keynote presentations on the conference’s first day all had a workforce/ professional development theme, and attracted a sizeable audience.
that this diversity is understood and celebrated. One of the Engineering Council’s key functions is to hold the national professional register to ensure that any professional from any of those areas possesses the skills and confidence to satisfy those they serve that they have met the recognised international standards.” He added: “We don’t appoint directly ourselves; we license the PEIs to appoint on our behalf as part of our Royal Charter.”
What registration signifies Moving to discuss what professional registration with the Engineering Council ‘meant’, Alasdair Coates explained that it conferred recognition – through membership of a professional engineering institute – that an individual had met the necessary standards, had had a proper review, had undergone assessment, and was able to demonstrate, through their professional institution, that ‘commitment to the future’. He added: “It also confirms that the individual is open to being a competent practising engineer, which is critical.” Registration also,” he added, “demonstrates commitment to Continuing Professional Development. This has always been a key part of being a registrant, and keeping up-to-date with the latest developments in one’s ‘branch’ of engineering.” He explained that from 2019, the Engineering Council had made it
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mandatory for the Professional Engineering Institutes to monitor and assess their members’ CPD, which made it especially important that engineers pick up CPD certificates for relevant activities undertaken, or learnings gained.
Giving society confidence Alasdair Coates said that ensuring that professional engineers undertook Continuing Professional Development activities, and had the evidence to demonstrate this, was also a key way for the engineering profession to ensure that that the public and ‘society’ had confidence in the engineers serving them. He said, by way of an analogy: “Imagine going to your GP, and discovering that he or she hasn’t been on any training course, or undertaken any additional training, for the past 25 years; you’d be pretty worried.”
‘Pathways to registration’ The speaker’s next focus was what he dubbed ‘pathways to registration’. “In essence,” he explained, “there are multiple ways to become registered. You can come into the profession via the traditional educational route – your Master’s level or Bachelor’s degree with Master’s level learning, and undergo a period of professional development, before you go through a peer review. Alternatively, you can enter via an
Ensuring that professional engineers undertook CPD activities was a key way for the profession to ensure that that the public and ‘society’ had confidence in the engineers serving them
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