An Engine for Change - A Chronicle of the Engineering Council

60A CHRONICLE OF THE ENGINEERING COUNCILTowards the end of 1990 the EngC comprised 47 bodies (the same total as in 1988 - but therewas a broadening of the EngC’s influence as there had been mergers and new bodies wereadmitted). The Nominations Committee, which vetted all applying Institutions, wasresponsible to the Standing Committee on Professional Institutions. An example of its workwas to begin reviewing the nominated statuses of 31 bodies in 1990; 19 were approved forrenewal while for 12 the existing status was extended to 31 May 1991 as the reviews had notbeen completed. Most authorisations were for accreditation of academic courses (27).Twenty-three were for industrial training programmes and three were for arrangements forexperience.The status of “Professional Associate” was introduced in 1990 for bodies that wished to belinked to the EngC. Their activities in contributing to engineering were welcomed by theEngC but they did not seek to be qualifying bodies in the same sense as those enjoyingNominated or Institution-Affiliated status. The Institution of Royal Engineers, established in1875, and the Safety and Reliability Society, established in 1980, become the first twoProfessional Associates of the EngC.The Fourth Engineering Profession Forum was held on 4 November 1990 during which fourtopical priority projects were discussed: Engineering Occupational Standards, Review ofEngineering Education, Continuing Professional Development [see below] andNeighbourhood Engineers.Interfacing with RegistrantsIn the EngC Annual Report for 1988, Sir William Barlow suggested that all Registrantsdisplay their Certificates of Registration at their workplaces to demonstrate that they heldsignificant qualifications. Also he asked them all “to reflect what they could do, in addition totheir jobs, to promote the impact on our profession in national life”. The Annual Report itselftook on a new style with photographs (and these featured the Chairman and the DirectorGeneral) appearing for the first time. The Chairman’s Foreword was retained but a DirectorGeneral’s Report and a Report of Activities replaced the former Reports of the Councilpublished in previous years. The aims and objectives of the EngC [which are reproduced inAnnex E] were clearly presented on a full page of the Annual Report, a practice that wasrepeated in the Reports for 1989 and 1990.During this period, from 1988 to 1990, the EngC Newsletter continued to be published everyspring and autumn for the benefit of Registrants. Each issue was packed with news on themany diverse activities of individuals, committees and the EngC as a whole. In April 1990issue 11 was redesigned, using a larger typeface and colour photographs for the first time.When events took /place that merited particular notice, an “Extra” issue of the Newsletter wasdistributed.For the benefit of new Registrants, a re-designed plastic registration card was issued inJanuary 1989 and EngC ties, stick pins, self-inking stamps and certificates were madeavailable from September 1989 to all Registrants enabling them to display their links with theEngC. Over 11,000 certificates and 11,000 cards were issued during this year.The “Eminence Route” to CEng was approved by the BER in 1989, intended for a very smallnumber of engineers who had clearly attained eminence in their field but who had notfollowed any of the normal routes to registration as Chartered Engineers. Also in 1989, a© Engineering Council UK 2004