More on Engineering Educational Requirements

Over the past few months, I've written some posts concerning the minimum level of education necessary for an engineer to be considered properly prepared to become licensed. In addition, I've also written regarding the impact of proper educational credentials on the job market for professionals and the US competitive position vis-a-vis other countries with better educational systems than currently exist here. Now it seems that others have also begun to take up the cause.

The president of the National Society of Professional Engineers, Michael Hardy, PE, has written an article in the November issue of PE magazine that begins to address the education of engineers, and the lack of post-baccalaureate requirements in order to become licensed. He notes that "...for engineering to be seen as a 'learned profession' by the public as it once was, we need to offer more than a four-year bachelor's of science degree." This may have been enough 3 generations ago, when the majority of adults didn't have high school diplomas, let alone college educations of any kind. However, with a large minority of the general public now holding four year degrees, it's more important than ever that the specialized education and training required to truly distinguish a professional engineer from the crowd be clearly defined, and a single year of graduate study just isn't sufficient to accomplish that end.

Mr. Hardy chooses to "leave that to those who have a better grasp of the details." As someone who has spent over 25 years in higher education, I've seen first hand what some of those details need to be, and will take this opportunity to advocate again for the development of engineering professional schools as being essential for the revitalization of the engineering profession in the United States. Properly prepared engineers are necessary to restore US competitiveness in everything from engineering design to manufacturing to construction, and ensure that the well-paying jobs that go with preeminence in those fields expand within this country, rather than be handed by default to the rest of the world.

Doing this will cost money. Our society must be willing to make that investment, along with investments in the rest of our educational system, manufacturing capability, infrastructure and workforce retraining if we are to retain our place as a leading nation going forward. I'll have more to say on those other investment needs in subsequent posts, but I'll close this one by stating categorically that if we're not willing to invest in ourselves and future generations, rather than just consume for the moment, we'll be a third rate nation in much shorter order than most folks realize.