FAQs: Professional registration

The professional title you are eligible for is dependent on the level of competence you can demonstrate. Academic and vocational qualifications contribute as they demonstrate your level of knowledge and understanding, but you must have working experience at that level.

For more information on the requirements for the appropriate professional title you are aiming to achieve, please see the below links:

• CEng (Chartered Engineering)
• IEng (Incorporated Engineering)
• EngTech (Engineering Technician)
• ICTTech (Information Communications Technology Technician)

The Engineering Council has Licensed Professional Engineering Institutions (PEIs) to assess candidates for registration. You should contact the most appropriate of these. Your chosen institution will be able to assess your qualifications, training and experience, and advise you if anything further is required. UK-SPEC and the ICTTech Standard also outline the competence and commitment criteria for each of the Engineering Council’s professional titles.

You may also want to search for your course to check if you are eligible for professional registration.

To register with the Engineering Council as Chartered Engineer (CEng), Incorporated Engineer (IEng), Engineering Technician (EngTech) and ICTTech you first need to join one of our Licensed PEIs with the relevant agreement. Please note that not all institutions cover all categories.

Your Licensed PEI will assess your qualifications, training and experience and let you know if anything further is required.

Once you meet the registration criteria and have completed the registration process they will submit a registration form to us on your behalf.

There are two types of registration fee:

• The initial joining fee
• The annual registration fee. 

Amounts vary depending on your level of registration and may be revised annually. Current Engineering Council registration fees are paid via the Licensed PEI you are registered through. Please contact your Licensed PEI for methods of payment.

Please note that you will also have to pay fees to join and retain membership of your chosen Licensed PEI. A few institutions also surcharge Engineering Council fees.

The Engineering Council does not offer direct registration.

Candidates for registration are required to be in membership of one of the Licensed PEIs.

No. Licensed PEIs offer a variety of membership grades. Some grades enable members to apply for registration, others do not, so please make sure your chosen Licensed PEI knows you wish to apply for registration.

In addition, you will always need to go through the registration assessment process before being registered with the Engineering Council.

This will depend on the length of time required by your Licensed PEI, so please check with them.

However, once your application has been assessed and approved by your Licensed PEI, and sent to the Engineering Council, it will normally be processed within one to three weeks of receipt (with the exception of the period mid-December to mid-January when it might take a bit longer).

Once your name has been added to the register, a registration pack is dispatched to the address provided by your Licensed PEI.

Please check with your Licensed PEI on the status of your registration application. Once your Licensed PEI has let you know that your application has been successful and passed to the Engineering Council, it normally takes up to 10 working days to be processed (and possibly longer during the period mid-December to mid-January).

Upon completion, your registration pack will be posted to you, at the address supplied to your Licensed PEI.

Yes, a registration pack, including a certificate is dispatched by the Engineering Council within 10 working days of your name being added to the register.

This will be on your registration certificate. If you do not have this please email a request to registration@engc.org.uk and provide the following information: full name, date-of-birth and institution membership number.

The order in which these should be listed is based on the order of precedence and category. This is dictated by standard practice, although it often varies by region.

The UK the Ministry of Justice recommends the following order:

1. Orders and Decorations conferred by the Crown, i.e. CBE, OBE etc
2. University degrees (where more than one, listed in the order of the foundation of the faculty from which they were earned. First degrees should be omitted if a higher degree is shown in the same faculty. However, when the awarding institutions are listed and the degrees are from different universities, lower degrees are included, e.g. Jo Smith, BA Wales MA London)
3. Registrations as practitioners (e.g. EngTech, IEng, CEng, ICTTech)
4. Fellowship or membership of learned societies, academies or professional institutions (for example MInst) (if the individual belongs to more than one, these should be listed in the order of the establishment of the organisation)
5. Membership of the Armed Forces

So, an example would be: Lieutenant A N Other MBE BEng CEng FREng RN

Certificates are not usually shown but Diplomas may be (inserted after degrees but before practitioner registrations).

More information can be found on the National Archives website.

Please contact the membership department of your Licensed PEI. They will assess your training, qualifications and experience against UK-SPEC and advise if you need to do anything further to become eligible.

In order to remain on our register you need to be a member of one of the appropriate Licensed PEIs.

Therefore, if you would like to cancel your membership with your current institution you will need to transfer your Engineering Council registration to another Licensed PEI first to avoid being removed from the national Register and losing your title.

If you choose to transfer your registration you are advised to do the following:

1. Join your new Licensed PEI
2. Request to pay your registration fee via the new Licensed PEI
3. Once payment has been transferred, resign from your original Licensed PEI

Please contact your institution for further information on how to reinstate your registration. The process for reinstatement will depend on how long it has been since the last payment of registration fees, but if the lapse has been longer than three years, the individual will be required to undertake a Professional Review.

Holding more than one professional registration at the same time, for example EngTech and IEng or IEng and CEng, is known as dual registration.

Dual registrations exist where a registrant has been awarded more than one of the Engineering Council’s titles and each of these has been awarded by a different Licensed PEI. The Engineering Council issues dual registrants with a certificate for each title.

Please note that dual registration is different from upgraded registration. Registration is upgraded when a registrant progresses from one title to another (eg IEng to CEng) via the same Licensed PEI. Although registrants who progress to a new title will receive a new certificate, they will not remain on the register under their former title (eg they would only be registered as a CEng and would lose their IEng status).

Dual registration is therefore only possible for those registered with separate titles, via separate Licensed PEIs, paying separate registration fees for each title.

If you are a member of more than one Licensed PEI, this is known as an additional membership.

Additional memberships exist where the registrant has been awarded their title by two separate Licensed PEI. The Engineering Council only issues one certificate on initial registration. However, secondary certificates can be purchased using the certificate order form.

No, please contact a Notary Public or Solicitor. However, we can provide confirmation of your registered status in the form of a letter or email if required.

You can contact us here.

If you require an additional or replacement certificate, an order form can be found and here and sent to us.

The Engineering Council no longer issues registration cards, but many Licensed PEIs do, so please check with yours. However, there are other products available, such as registrant ties, lapel pins and professional stamps..

Please email your request to registration@engc.org.uk and provide the following information:

• Full name
• Date-of-birth
• Institution membership number
• Engineering Council registration number

Engineers do not require a licence to practise in the UK. However, professional registration would be of great benefit and shows that you meet certain professional standards.

Please contact UK ENIC, the national agency responsible for providing information and advice about how qualifications and skills from overseas compare to the UK's national qualification frameworks. They can compare your qualifications and provide you with simple and officially recognised documents which explain the level of your qualification:

• A letter of comparability: Providing information on the comparable level of your qualifications to UK standards
• A career path report: An in-depth report describing one of your qualifications and the education system in which you studied

UK ENIC letters of comparability are useful when applying for jobs in the UK as they provide clear indicators of your education level in UK terms. These letters do not, however, provide exemption from elements of the registration process, although some institutions do use them as part of their assessment.

UK ENIC can be contacted via their website, by telephone at +44 (0)871 330 7033 or by email.

No, RegCheck will only verify information.

This means the person who is checking if you are professionally registered needs to already know your name, which professional title you hold, and either your registration number or your date of birth. RegCheck will not display any additional information or personal details such as your address.

So, a person who is verifying using your registration number would not be informed of your date of birth, or vice versa.

Your professional registration can be verified through our online tool RegCheck. The person checking will need to know:

• Your full name
• Which professional title you hold (such as CEng or ICTTech)
• Either your date of birth or your Engineering Council registration number

Registration is renewable annually on payment of a fee and provided that there has been no violation of codes of professional conduct. Fees are collected by the registering Licensed PEIs, usually alongside the annual membership subscription.

The registering institution also monitors conduct and continuing professional development.

The Engineering Council is the UK regulatory body for the engineering profession.

We set and maintain the internationally recognised standards of professional competence and ethics, detailed in the UK Standard for Professional Engineering Competence and Commitment (UK-SPEC).

We hold the national register of over 228,000 Chartered Engineers (CEng), Incorporated Engineers (IEng), Engineering Technicians (EngTech) and Information Communications Technology Technicians (ICTTech) and in addition there are over 10,000 engineers and technicians on the national register classified as Interim Registrants, having registered their intention to work towards one of the professional titles above.

To gain one of these titles individuals first become a member of a Licensed PEIs, licensed by the Engineering Council to assess candidates for registration. The License PEIs are membership organisations that provide services such as journals, conferences, CPD seminars, mentoring and advice to individuals who are preparing for their professional review. Please note that the Engineering Council does not provide such membership services. There are Licensed PEIs, each one an independent body with members in a specific industry sector(s) or discipline(s) in engineering.

Specifically, Professional Affiliates are membership organisations that are linked to the Engineering Council, but not licensed to assess candidates for registration. A number of the Professional Affiliates have registration agreements with the licensed institutions that allow them to register their members through their licensed partner.

The Engineering Council works closely with the Licensed PEIs, from whom it gets its mandate. Many of the institutions are represented on its Board of Trustees and other committees.

No, the Engineering Council does not currently advertise job vacancies other than its own or positions within the Licensed Professional Engineering Institutions (PEIs).

Most of the Licensed PEIs have recruitment sections on their website or in their journals, so please check with the institutions relevant to your sector or discipline of engineering.