How to solve our identity crisis

I became qualified by studying on day and block release while working in a consultant’s office, and have been a consulting engineer for 42 years.

The reason bright school-leavers get fired up about becoming an architect or doctor is that society has always known what an architect or doctor is. Too many other occupations misuse the word “engineer” by claiming to be such when they are not. Remember, the word comes from the Latin root ingenerare, meaning to create. Repairing items is not the same.

I found out about this problem a long time ago when I went to my son’s school to discuss my career with the pupils as part of the school’s programme to teach the importance of good qualifications and higher education. The children did not understand what an engineer or a consultant was, the latter immediately being associated with the medical profession.

Some years ago, Michael Heseltine, President of the Board of Trade, advised the Engineering Board that he would get the title “engineer” recognised by restricting its use to those who were registered with the board as a technician engineer or higher. They would be allowed to title themselves with “Eng” in front of their names, in a similar way as, by registering with FEANI, engineers in the rest of Europe use Eur Ing. Like all government promises, however, the proposal fell by the wayside.

I would suggest Dr Strong redirects his efforts into encouraging the other engineering institutions and the Engineering Council to get the title “engineer” recognised as a profession on a par with doctors and lawyers, in line with mainland Europe, together with the letters “Eng” or perhaps “Ing” only being allowed to be used by those registered with the council from incorporated upwards. Once this is done, we can start worrying about the CIBSE name.