An Engine for Change - A Chronicle of the Engineering Council

230A CHRONICLE OF THE ENGINEERING COUNCIL(CPE) and look to even stronger co-operation between the Engineering Council and CPE infuture. With renewed Government interest in science and technology from Lord Sainsbury,Steven Byers and David Blunkett the time is right to make bold proposals on how torestructure the engineering profession - hence the value and timeliness of the Robert Hawleywork.I am not really in a position to rate the Engineering Council’s relationships with outsidebodies, but my perception is that there are too many competing organisations with vestedinterests and confused objectives. This undoubtedly dilutes their best intentions and sadlyoften ends in unproductive “turf wars” which, if anything, dilutes and distracts theEngineering Council’s own objectives.Michael KippSenatorMy summary of the Engineering Council’s current relationship with stakeholders is:Engineering Institutions - vastly improved, but still tense at times.Academia - has always been, and continues to be, strong.Government - the profession is seen to be less relevant that the tradeunions, or academia, or management. Could do better!Industry - with few exceptions, registration, and hence theEngineering Council, is seen as irrelevant.The Public - is almost totally unaware of the Engineering Council’sexistence.Barbara Stephens IEngI wanted to defer my reply until I had met with a group of 20 experienced engineers (myfellow engineering graduates of 1947) from various disciplines to hear how the EngineeringCouncil had impacted on their careers and professional activities.Perhaps partly because their comments - even allowing for the inevitable hand-wringing byany group of septuagenarians - were generally rather dismissive of the Engineering Council,registration, et al, my reflections may appear unduly critical. But this is mainly due to myown feeling, although a firm supporter of the Engineering Council concept, that it has ratherlost its way in recent years.Professor John CaldwellEngineeringInstitutionsAcademiaGovernmentEMTAIndustryPublicMembersVeryGoodGood Average Indifferent Bad VeryBadDepending how big theInstitution is.Depending on whether or not the college is oldor new.A rival sometimes with a differentagendaClaire Curtis Thomas MP© Engineering Council UK 2004