An Engine for Change - A Chronicle of the Engineering Council

ANNEX H 221Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental ManagementExternal communications have improved possibly to the extent of overload! We still receivevolumes of paperwork, some of which is highly relevant, some which wrongly assumes alevel of knowledge and some which are neither informative nor noteworthy.However, we must state at this juncture that the flow of paperwork is now at a manageablelevel and does on the whole arrive in one envelope instead of three or four posted on the sameday.Association of Cost EngineersProbably the most important aspect for the Engineering Council in relation to outsidecommunications is for it to bombard the media with continuous campaigns to attempt todistinguish where the Professional Engineer differs from the oily rag brigade, thecatastrophes from ignoring the engineering aspects, the tragedy of the lack of recognisedengineers in Parliament and other public bodies and anything which keeps the profession inthe news. This raises again the question of protected titles and restrictions to licensedengineers. An unfortunate title is the Incorporated Engineer which has overtones of a failedAmerican corporation and is probably about the least recognised qualification in the country.A dynamic, forceful, modern title is desperately needed.It also appears that the Engineering Council and the registered titles are only known in the‘ex-colonial’ world. There would appear to be many countries where it is unknown andRegistered Engineers unrecognised. Is this another area where effort is needed, or is therescope for a supra-International Engineering Council.The Welding InstituteThe Engineering Council’s external communications are vital in the interests of promotingthe engineering profession. The regular Bulletin provides a focussed update on the wholesphere of activities and the regular news releases provide punchy items, useful both to thepress and the technical journals.Institution of Incorporated EngineersThere is a need for a more focussed, high profile communications policy. We need to see theEngineering Council at the front of a lot of positive news about professionalism.Institute of Road Transport EngineersPoor, although the recently launched marketing campaign has helped to address this. With theexception of schools literature prior to the marketing campaign I am not aware of anyliterature aimed at potential Registrants. The vast amount of paper circulated to theNominated Bodies in the past resulted in most of it not being read!Legislative communications are representative of the profession.© Engineering Council UK 2004