Blogged too soon... CEng!

Breaking news - within an hour of that last post going up, I received confirmation from the Institution of Mechanical Engineers that I've been elected to Membership of the institution. I'm officially approved to be a chartered engineer. This is a really, really big deal for me.

In practical terms, the main difference it makes is that I pay a higher subscription fee, and I can be struck off as a Chartered Engineer if I don't abide by the code of conduct. That might not seem like a big deal, but it is. In the UK (unlike some other countries), engineer is not a protected title - anyone can term themselves an engineer. So, though I've always said for the last nineteen years that I was an engineer, on paper, at least, I was just the owner of two engineering qualifications, both over 11 years old who worked in academia and taught engineering. So, I doubt many would quibble with my describing myself as an engineer, but there's no guarantee that I'm a good engineer, or a safe engineer.

Chartered Engineer on the other hand, is a protected title. You can be prosecuted for claiming to be chartered if you aren't, so having chartered status acts as a badge of quality assurance. It also commits you to a code of conduct which includes continuing professional development, and to not making claims that are beyond your expertise. Just because I studied thermodynamics sixteen years ago and can still give you the basic principles, doesn't make me competent to design a complex heating system. So in some ways, just as you would expect a surgeon, or a doctor, or a lawyer who abused their position or misbehaved to be struck off, a Chartered Engineer can. Unlike a qualification, chartered status is something that has to be maintained.

The Engineering Council offers a good discussion of these issues and why they haven't pushed for engineer to be a protected title here:

https://www.engc.org.uk/glossary-faqs/frequently-asked-questions/status-of-engineers/

Why does this matter so much to me? I'm an academic, so CEng status is largely, well, academic. I teach on a Product Design programme, I don't need to be chartered to do my job. Yet, it ties in strongly with the whole concept of the Engineering Imagination. About what engineering is for, and why we do it. I've increasingly come to think of engineering as an identity, not just a profession: a way of looking at the world, for better or for worse.

Anyway, enough rambling - I just think it dovetails nicely into the writing I hope to do here on the Engineering Imagination. Here's to an interesting summer on the blog...