Is UK-SPEC working?

ECUK is embarking on a major survey into the impact of UK-SPEC, the United Kingdom Standard for Professional Engineering Competence. The project will investigate the current effects of the standard, which was first published in December 2003, and establish baseline data for future work. It will help identify any changes that might be necessary and provide a basis for measuring continued fitness for purpose.

It is against UK-SPEC that candidates for CEng, IEng and EngTech registration are now assessed. The institutions that carry this out are helped by its much clearer explanation of competence requirements compared with the previous SARTOR standard. The new standard also differs from its predecessor in its outcomes related approach to assessment and increased emphasis on ‘soft skills’.

The degree to which UK-SPEC is influencing the education, training and professional development of UK engineers and technicians and how much it continues to reflect employers’ requirements, will be the initial focus of the project. It will go on to examine the processes of competence assessment, reviewing their robustness and outcome consistency, and will also look at how registration measures up as an indicator of professionalism and status among both employers and the wider public. The perceptions of international employers regarding the strengths and weaknesses of UK-educated engineers will be another area covered.

A steering group has been set up to provide overall project guidance and tenders invited from a number of potential research contractors. The aim is to complete the project by the end of this year.

Registration the goal for Lloyd’s Register engineers

A growing number of leading organisations require that their engineers are professionally registered or have the right qualifications to become so. The Lloyd’s Register Group is one of them. Its graduate training scheme only accepts those with degrees that have been accredited as leading to Chartered Engineer (CEng) status, which they are expected to attain on completion of their initial professional development.

Lloyd’s Register is an independent risk management organisation that works to ensure high standards of safety, quality, reliability and asset performance for its international client base. The latter covers a wide spectrum of industries, a fact reflected in the different types of engineers that the Lloyd’s Register Group employs. These are mainly naval architects and mechanical, electrical and control systems engineers. As such they become members of RINA, IMarEST, IMechE or IEE, all institutions that are licensed by ECUK to assess candidates for CEng status.

There are currently 15 trainees on the group’s UK graduate programme and it is hoped that a further ten will be recruited in the autumn. The Lloyd’s Register Group has 175 offices around the world and a workforce of roughly 5000, hundreds of whom are registered engineers.

Compensation and consistency

The vexed question of ‘compensation’ – under which a student can still be awarded a degree despite failing a course module, providing he or she scores sufficiently highly on another unit – was high on the agenda at January’s inaugural meeting of the Engineering Accreditation Board (EAB). The Board’s discussions on the subject proved very productive, resulting in draft guidelines to institutions on assessing universities’ compensation policies when accrediting degrees.

Compensation was one of two significant issues raised in last year’s Washington Accord review of the UK’s accreditation system. The other concerned consistency of degree accreditation practice. It is partly through the work of EAB – one of whose reasons for existing is to disseminate good practice – that this issue is being addressed.

Another of EAB’s functions is to organise joint accreditation visits, when universities request them, on behalf of appropriate member institutions. The first of these to be wholly undertaken under the auspices of the new Board is due to take place shortly and will involve as many as eight institutions evaluating an MSc in Integrated Environmental Management offered by the University of Bath. Typically, MSc programmes are accredited or approved by the institutions as meeting the further learning requirement for CEng registration. To date very few have been assessed, though it is envisaged that more and more will be.

As was reported in the last issue (No 30) of Register News, EAB was created at the end of last year through the merger of DABCE (Degree Accreditation Board for Chartered Engineers) and JAB (Joint Accreditation Board).

Firm foundations

Foundation degrees have received a favourable report from the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA), which sees them as having benefited both students and employers. Foundation Degree Forward (FDF), the organisation set up to support the development of these work-based qualifications, has also been commended for its work, in a report to the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE).

Offered by universities and HE and FE colleges, foundation degrees first became available in 2001. Introduced by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) to address shortages in particular skills and widen access to higher-level qualifications, they are designed and delivered in partnership with employers. They can be studied on a full-time (two years) or part-time (often three to four years) basis. Moreover, graduates who wish to can achieve a full honours degree with just 12-15 months further study.

The number of foundation degrees has grown significantly over the last five years and there are now over 2500 courses available around the country. These include a variety of engineering, technology and construction programmes. ECUK recognises them as an exemplifying qualification for registration as an Incorporated Engineer (when combined with further learning to bachelor’s level).

According to the QAA report, foundation degree students have a high rate of progression to honours degree programmes or to relevant employment, and the courses are also providing opportunities to those who would not previously have considered studying at HE level. Employers have benefited owing to their influence over course curriculum and their part in delivering it – and have also expressed their satisfaction with the increased knowledge, skills and confidence that students have acquired. (www.qaa.ac.uk/reviews/foundationdegree/learningfrom05.)

The evaluation of Foundation Degree Forward commissioned by HEFCE found that it had been extremely successful in establishing itself as a valued source of expertise and advice and in disseminating information on course design, development and delivery. The report also highlights the vital quality enhancement role performed by FDF. It further states that there is a need for the organisation to carry on its work, at least until foundation degrees had become fully embedded, and for it to increase its activity on employer engagement. (http://www.hefce.ac.uk/pubs/rdreports/2005/rd26_05/ )

Last year ECUK signed an agreement with FDF in support of the developing core of engineering foundation degrees.

Overseas aid

Spain’s COGITI – the institution that represents some 80% of the country’s engineers – has been eager to learn from the Engineering Council’s considerable international experience, particularly with regard to mutual recognition of professional qualifications and degree accreditation systems. At COGITI’s invitation, ECUK’s Head of International Recognition, Jim Birch, and a representative from the Association of German Engineers (VDI), recently travelled to Madrid to meet with the Spanish institution’s Board.

Importantly, the meeting may well have been a first step towards making it simpler for UK registered engineers to ply their trade in the heavily regulated Spanish market.

COGITI is keen to increase its profile and influence within Europe. It is not surprising then that they have moved to establish links with big hitters like ECUK and VDI. As well as representing countries with large engineering industries, they are both decidedly internationalist in outlook and have been heavily involved in initiatives such as the EU’s Mobility Directive and the Bologna Declaration (under which the signatory nations have agreed to align their HE systems). Both organisations also have representatives on the board of the European Federation of National Engineering Associations (FEANI).

COGITI does not presently enjoy the same sway and could lose out as a result of pan-European agreements made by others. The Bologna Declaration seems to pose a particular problem owing to the relatively short duration (three-years) of the degree programmes that are required for membership of the Spanish institution. The majority of COGITI’s members are production engineers and carry out the same type of vital work as many Incorporated Engineers in the UK.

At the recent meeting, COGITI expressed a willingness to begin negotiations with ECUK over mutual recognition of engineers. For Incorporated Engineers wishing to work in Spain – and for whom joining COGITI would be a statutory requirement to carry out a wide range of tasks – recognition of their professional qualifications should allow fast tracking of their membership applications. Currently this is far from a straightforward process. Some of those with Engineering Technician status might similarly benefit.

All three parties – COGITI, ECUK and VDI - have agreed to maintain links and exchanges ideas and information, a process that has already started.

On the cards

The European Federation of National Engineering Associations (FEANI) is seeking funds from the EC to develop a European card for professional engineers (ENGCARD). The creation of professional card systems is one of the measures suggested in the new Directive on Recognition of Qualifications.

It is envisaged that ENGCARD would carry details of an individual’s experience and qualifications and – importantly – would be validated by FEANI. This would distinguish it from the existing EUROPASS system, which relies on self-certification.

A FEANI survey of EUR ING registered engineers revealed a high level of support for the idea. As a tool enabling transparency of qualifications and facilitating engineer mobility, the proposed card has also had a positive reaction from several Directorates of the European Commission.

Raising student awareness

Industrious, self-disciplined and hardly ever to be found carousing in the Union bar, most engineering students are totally focussed on achieving a good degree. When they do allow themselves the luxury of looking beyond graduation, thoughts of professional registration are unlikely to be uppermost in their minds. Indeed they may not even have heard of the titles Chartered Engineer and Incorporated Engineer.

The Engineering Council has recently produced a poster to raise student awareness of registration and has distributed copies to all university engineering schools in the UK. It spells out the main benefits of achieving CEng or IEng status and invites the reader to find out more from the ECUK website.

The poster could also be used to generate interest in registration among practising engineers, by displaying it in workplaces or at exhibitions and other venues. ECUK licensed institutions and company HR departments can obtain copies from: ehallatt@engc.org.uk

Mathematically speaking

ECUK’s deputy director Richard Shearman will be one of four invited speakers at the 5th IMA Conference on the Mathematical Education of Engineers, which is to be held from 11-12th April at Loughborough University. His presentation will explain what UK-SPEC (United Kingdom Standard for Professional Engineering Competence) implies for maths in engineering.

Unlike SARTOR3, the standard that preceded it, UK-SPEC uses outcomes-based assessment criteria. ECUK-licensed institutions have been using its output standards to accredit courses since 2004. Significantly, student entry standards are no longer a criterion in themselves.

Richard will outline how the output standards were developed and the way they are being applied in practice. He will then consider what the generally welcomed change in accreditation philosophy means for engineering graduates’ understanding of mathematics.

Details of the conference can be found at www.ima.org.uk.

Get them in and keep them interested

The Engineering and Technology Board (ETB) is working closely with UCAS to encourage more young people to take science, engineering and technology (SET) degrees. It is also involved in a publishing venture whose purpose is to persuade those who have made this wise choice to stay in the profession once they have graduated. In another initiative, this time in partnership with the LSDA and SEMTA, it is piloting a teacher/lecturer placement scheme with a view to improving engineering and technology careers advice.

ETB and UCAS are currently collaborating with ‘The London Mathematical Society’, the ‘Royal Statistical Society’ and the ‘Institute of Mathematics and its Applications’ to produce a practical guide for careers advisors and schools. This will list every mathematics and engineering degree course in the UK. ETB and its partners will be providing positive role models and information on the many exciting careers that are open to engineering and maths graduates. Entitled ‘Progressions to Mathematics and Engineering’, the directory is due to be published in May.

May will also see the publication of the first issue of ‘Technology Horizons’, a new magazine aimed specifically at SET students and new graduates. Content has been developed jointly by ETB’s scenta team and journalists from The Engineer, which is published by Centaur. Along with an accompanying website, the magazine will offer a comprehensive source of news, features, jobs, careers information and statistics, plus access to over 30,000 articles. The website www.technologyhorizons.co.uk is due to go live at the end of April.

It is hoped that Technology Horizons will help dissuade newly graduated engineering and technology students from deserting to alternative careers. It is estimated that as many as 6 out of 10 them currently do just that.

In the joint pilot project with the LSDA (Learning and Skills Development Agency) and Sector Skills Council SEMTA, ten teachers and lecturers will benefit from longer than normal placements (6-12 weeks) in engineering companies. Extended placements should enable teaching staff to become more aware of career opportunities within the engineering sector and thus give the best possible advice to students. ETB is hopeful that the scheme can ultimately be implemented on a national scale.

General Information

To subscribe:
Send an email with: subscribe register news in the subject box to register.news@engc.org.uk

To unsubscribe:
send an email with: unsubscribe register news in the subject box to register.news@engc.org.uk

Register News is intended for everyone interested in the requirements for registration with the Engineering Council UK as a professional engineer or technician. In particular it is intended to alert readers to changes to regulations and to new developments or initiatives that have a bearing on registration status or the means to gain registration.

Institutions, and others with an interest, are welcome to copy and disseminate all or any part of Register News . Please acknowledge the Engineering Council UK as the source.