An Engine for Change - A Chronicle of the Engineering Council

1999-2001: THE HAWLEY YEARS 151Review Interviews. SARTOR-3 was fully implemented in the Autumn of 1999, effectivelyraising the education and training standards for those entering the profession [see Chapters 5and 6]. Arrangements were established for a transition process to take care of thosecandidates who had started under the former SARTOR-2 rules.Also in 1999 the RSC defined standards for those pursuing non-mainstream routes to CEngand IEng, including the Individual Case Procedure and the Mature Candidate Route. ForEngineering Technicians, progress was made during the year with the Qualifications andCurriculum Authority (QCA) towards recognising EngTech as a qualification meritingpublicly-funded education.In 2000 the RSC continued to develop SARTOR-3. Two proposals concerned withalternative routes to Registration were approved. The first was for very senior engineersworking in organisations at or near Board level whose educational qualifications would notsatisfy current SARTOR requirements. The second proposal concerned a route toprofessional review for suitable mature candidates through a process of career appraisalrather than the existing Mature Candidate route. Pilot trials of these routes were not regardedas successful initially. In 2001 a Pathways to Registration Handbook was published dealingwith common procedures and replacing several other documents. Another publication wasStandards for Professional Engineers : A Guide for Employers explaining SARTORstandards and the background to them.The BER contributed to EDEXCEL’s reviews of higher NVQ and GNVQ syllabi and also todeveloping a new matching section for IEng to enable those with NVQs to move towardsregistration with the EngC. In addition, the BER responded in 1999 to several Governmenteducation-related initiatives, including the Green Paper ‘Learning to Succeed’ whichexamined the funding and inspection regime in the FE sector. An EngC-sponsored seminarissued a joint response to this.At the Higher Education level the EngC represented the profession on a number ofQAA/Engineering Professors’ Council working groups looking at compatibility ofbenchmark statements for engineering degrees. The EngC also convened a joint Institutions’Working Group to develop the QAA’s engineering benchmark for MEng degrees.EngC ExaminationsThe year 2000 was a difficult one for the examinations team due to the untimely death,already mentioned, of their Manager, Brian Millicent. However the appointment of ChrisHarrison as his successor facilitated a review of key issues and a radical overhaul of theexamination. New web-based information was developed to considerably improve marketingof the EngC Examinations, especially overseas where most candidates resided. As part of theoverhaul, almost all of the Part 2 syllabuses were revised and the reading list of some 400titles brought up-to-date. This was disseminated overseas by the British Council. A newscheme was devised for the approval of EngC Examination Centres overseas.From 2000 success in the Part 1 Examination was rewarded with an EngC Certificate,success in Part 2 with a Diploma and success in the new Part 3 with an Advanced Diploma.Options for the delivery of teaching materials via the internet to overseas candidates wereinvestigated and possible strategic alliances for enhanced examination marketing wereevaluated.© Engineering Council UK 2004