An Engine for Change - A Chronicle of the Engineering Council

218A CHRONICLE OF THE ENGINEERING COUNCILInstitution of Electrical Engineers*GovernmentEMTAEEFIndustryPublicvery poor. DTI (Lord Sainsbury) believes Engineering Council is notperforming adequately - hence Hawley Group.close linkage, but perhaps not always helpful to professional engineers sinceEMTA is more involved at technician level.far too close, alienating large parts of the profession.the Engineering Council is generally regarded as just a stage more useless andineffective than the Institutions.unaware of the Engineering Council.Note also that most Institution members believe (unfairly) that their subscription to theEngineering Council provides them with no benefit. In fact £20/year just to retain the use ofCEng designatory letters represents a reasonable bargain.Association of Cost Engineers*With regard to the relationship of the Engineering Council to outside bodies, it has to beadmitted that there is not that much evidence, especially with regard to the general public.There is minimal attribution in the broadsheet dailies to pronouncements regardingengineering at all, let alone anything relating to the Engineering Council. When, if ever, has apronouncement been heard on radio and attributed to the Engineering Council. TheEngineering Council is only too aware, no doubt, of the perception of the general publicregarding engineering, and in particular the low regard in which it is held in the schoolswhich in the main have a dominance of Arts graduates in the ranks of heads and deputies. Nothelped either by the practice within the schools of appointing a careers advisor of someonewho is probably under 30 from an Arts discipline, and with no knowledge of the outsideworld other than their own progression from school through higher education and back toschool.It does appear to the individual engineer that the Engineering Council is of less importancethan their own Institution through which they registered, despite the occasional newsletter.This is understandably the case of the members of the major Institutions, and who have theirown Charters, and in the ultimate can go their own way. The small Institutions, particularlythose who only have a small number of Registrants, may have to fight continually to avoidclaims that the Engineering Council is attempting to impose some practices of recruitmentand administration. For those who belong to more than one Institution and therefore have abroader view than of a single Institution, it does not come over that the Engineering Councilis a dominant body at the forefront of everything. It appears to be more in the background.Especially once an individual has been registered, the most noticeable fact regarding theEngineering Council is the annual renewal fee. Unless an individual engineer has becomeinvolved with the Engineering Council, such as acting for the Institution in relation toregistration or other activities, there does not seem to be much relevance.© Engineering Council UK 2004