New routes to registration

Engineers will be able to achieve Chartered or Incorporated status by following work-based routes to registration if plans by the Engineering Council UK (ECUK) are rolled out.

Under the scheme, ECUK is proposing a new route to registration as a professional engineer by the integration of part-time study and supervised work-based professional development. The organisation hopes that it will encourage “thousands” more graduates to achieve charted status.

The government-backed scheme has been proposed by ECUK to increase the numbers of registered engineers by making it less expensive for engineers to attain incorporated or chartered status. In particular, it is hoped that the scheme will increase the numbers of women and ethnic minorities currently under represented in engineering and to encourage more people to enter and stay in the profession.

The scheme is being piloted initially with Kingston University and the University of Northumbria.

The scheme will take as its starting point Kingston’s existing work-based MSc for CEng registration and its foundation degree with honours top-up for IEng candidates. Programmes developed from these pilots are intended to satisfy all the requirements for registration.

Three institutions will work with the ECUK and its academic partners in an initial 18-month phase: the Institution of Engineering and Technology, Institution of Mechanical Engineers and the Royal Aeronautical Society.

Following the pilot study, the IEng/CEng work-based programmes will be rolled out nationwide during a second three-year phase, when institutions such as CIBSE are expected to adopt them.

Lynn Beattie, director of education and professional development at CIBSE, said the institution was looking to take part in the scheme. “CIBSE supports this initiative and is intending to participate in the future,” she said.

The DfES has provided funding of £561 000 towards the cost of the project under its Gateways to the Professions initiative.