An Engine for Change - A Chronicle of the Engineering Council

1999-2001: THE HAWLEY YEARS 147On 25 January 2000 the Association for Project Management linked with the EngC tobecome a Professional Affiliate and the Institute of Asphalt Technology, founded in 1966,achieved the same status on 12 April 2000 bringing the number of Professional Affiliates toeight. At this time there were 35 Nominated Bodies and three “conditionally” nominated –the Institution of Railway Signal Engineers, the Society of Environmental Engineers and theInstitution of Highways and Transportation. Later in the year the Institute of Mathematics andits Applications ended its bid for Nominated Body status and became a Professional Affiliateon 11 July.In 2001 the Institute of Concrete Technology, founded in 1972, and the Institute ofRefrigeration, founded in 1899, became EngC Professional Affiliates on 25 January. TheSociety of Engineers, established in 1854, became a Professional Affiliate on 11 July, and on14 September the Association of Cost Engineers moved from being a Nominated Body tobecome a Professional Affiliate. The Institute of Corrosion, founded in 1959, joined the rankson 10 October. By the end of 2001 there were 36 EngC Nominated Bodies and 13 EngCProfessional Affiliates.A marked step forward in 2001 was issuing, on the EngC website by the EngC MembershipDepartment, the Accredited Courses Database. As an interactive link this facility enabled allthe Institutions, and the public as well, to access details on accredited academic courseswithout the need for prolonged enquiries or correspondence.Interfacing with Registrants: The Register, ECROs, Biennial surveys.A professional marketing manager was appointed in 1999 and an Institution Steering Groupformed to promote registration among employers and appropriately qualified engineers.The Licensing of Competent Persons Task Group proposals of 1997 gained support during1999. Engineers with certificates of competence were becoming recognised. In 2001 achapter on Licensing of Competent Persons was added to the Nomination and AuditCommittee’s Policy and Procedures Manual.Statistics‘Engineers for Britain: The State of the Profession Towards 2000’ was published by theEngC in 1999 in the series of annual statistical digests and contained an additional survey offurther education in engineering. It highlighted the significant contribution made byprofessional engineers to technological change and economic growth.At the end of 1999 there were some 260,000 CEngs, IEngs and EngTechs listed on the EngCRegister – a number that had remained more or less constant for several years (see Fig. 3a).In December 2000 ‘The State of the Profession 2001’, also in the series mentioned above,was published encompassing an even wider range of statistics. As well as updating the timeseriesfor most of the data, this edition contained a fuller survey of secondary educationincluding information on further mathematics, design and technology and chemistry. Moreinformation about skill shortages in the profession and more data about the number ofengineers in the labour force (whether registered or not) were included. Economic analysisand modelling were used to indicate the significant contribution made by professionalengineers and technology to the process of economic growth.© Engineering Council UK 2004