An Engine for Change - A Chronicle of the Engineering Council

216A CHRONICLE OF THE ENGINEERING COUNCIL(b) Partial Success- Neighbourhood Engineers (good in terms of support to schools, a disaster interms of role models).- Registration (although continuation of incorporated engineer title rather thanchartered technologist represents, in my view a most unfortunate missedopportunity).(c) Shortcomings- Impossible Institution mix; large Institutions and small bodies will always haveconflicting needs and aspirations.- Failed to act as the ‘Voice of the Profession’ - now some Institutions are voicingdoubts as to whether engineering is a single profession!The Welding InstituteOne must not underestimate the problems of forging a single profession out of a collection ofInstitutions, so this must be seen as a success. Some progress has been made with imaging theprofession, but the objective of achieving parity of recognition with medics, architects,lawyers and so forth has not been met. This is not a failure of the Engineering Council itself,but of the engineering industry and profession being unwilling to fund the expensive imagebuilding required. The public need to understand that the world as we know it continues anddevelops through scientists and engineers, and that it is these people, not the media‘personalities’ and financial wizards, who are the real contributors to society. However, tochange the perception would cost sustained expenditure of a high order and no-one wants topay.Institute of Road Transport Engineers(a)(b)(c)The Engineering Council’s Successes to date?- Generation of a National Register.- Creation and management of SARTOR.- Growing recognition as prime informed source on engineering matters.- Young Engineers for Britain programme.- The Environment Award for Engineers.- Annual publication of Digest of Engineering Statistics.And its partial successes?- Generation of professional unity and common purpose.- International qualification correlation.- PEI Structure.- NEP.And its shortcomings?- Marketing the Register (in the past).- Failure to promote Engineering Technician section of the Register.- Unbalanced influence of large Institutions.Institution of Chemical EngineersI recently had occasion to write to Malcolm Shirley and included a quote from one of mysenior Council members in respect of the Engineering Council. Although harsh, the quoterang true.© Engineering Council UK 2004