Engineering Council
Education & Skills
The Engineering Council believes that all aspiring engineers and technicians should have access to world-class education and training programmes to help them develop industry-relevant knowledge, skills and behaviours.
The engineering profession supports the development of such high quality programmes, including apprenticeships, training, qualifications, degrees and other educational programmes. Many of these support individuals on their journey towards professional registration.
A key element of the Engineering Council’s role as the regulator for the UK engineering profession is to set and maintain standards for professional registration. This includes setting the criteria that education programmes must meet to become recognised, through approval or accreditation. Prospective students, employers and society have the assurance that recognised programmes meet the standards set by the engineering profession.
The Engineering Council licenses a number of professional engineering institutions (PEIs) to carry out recognition processes. These assess whether education and training programmes fully or partially meet the education requirements for professional registration. Joining a PEI is the first step towards becoming professionally registered.
The approval process looks at the overall design, coverage and assessment strategy for programmes that may be delivered in multiple locations and seeks evidence that satisfactory quality assurance arrangements are in place. The accreditation process looks at programmes delivered in a specific location.
Routes to professional registration
To achieve professional registration, your competence and commitment will be assessed against the standards in UK-SPEC or the ICTTech Standard, through a ‘professional review’. This is a peer process, carried out by engineers and technicians who are professional registered, competent and trained to undertake this assessment.
Knowledge, understanding and skills form an essential part of competence. This provides the necessary foundation of underpinning logic and analytical capabilities. Formal education is one way of demonstrating the necessary underpinning knowledge and understanding, but it is not the only way. All applicants’ knowledge, understanding and skills are assessed against the UK-SPEC standard of competence which sets the minimum requirements.
Applicants who have achieved the required learning outcomes through recognised qualifications will need not to provide any further evidence about their education. Qualifications which provide the required level of knowledge and understanding are:
- EngTech: Level 3 qualification as part of an approved apprenticeship scheme
- IEng: an accredited Bachelors degree
- CEng: an accredited integrated Masters degree or a combination of accredited Bachelors and Masters degrees
Applicants who do not have the recognised qualifications will instead have an individual assessment of their qualifications and any other relevant learning.
Course Search
The Engineering Council maintains two searchable databases. These enable prospective and current students, employers, universities, registration authorities outside the UK and the public to check whether a specific qualification or programme has been approved or accredited as meeting the education requirements for a given category of professional registration
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Approval and Accreditation FAQs
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Accreditation of Higher Education programmes
Accreditation is the process of reviewing an engineering degree programme to judge whether or not it meets the defined standards. This status is awarded to engineering degrees that meet some or all of the education requirements for professional registration as an Incorporated Engineer (IEng) or Chartered Engineer (CEng)
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Approval of Qualifications and Apprenticeship Programmes
Approved status is awarded to engineering qualifications and apprenticeship programmes that meet some or all of the education requirements for professional registration as an Engineering Technician (EngTech), ICT Technician (ICTTech), Incorporated Engineer (IEng) or Chartered Engineer (CEng). The approval process looks at the overall design, coverage and assessment strategy and seeks evidence that satisfactory quality assurance arrangements are in place
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Work-based Professional Engineering degrees
Flexible work-based MSc and Bachelors programmes in Professional Engineering are available at a range of universities
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Engineering Council Exam
Administered by City & Guilds from 2001 - 2011, the Engineering Council Examination provided a means of meeting the academic requirements for professional registration as a Chartered Engineer.
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The Bologna Declaration
The Bologna Declaration was initially signed by the Higher Education Ministers of 29 European countries in June 1999
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