黑洞社区

I became qualified by studying on day and block release while working in a consultant鈥檚 office, and have been a consulting engineer for 42 years.

The reason bright school-leavers get fired up about becoming an architect or doctor is that society has always known what an architect or doctor is. Too many other occupations misuse the word 鈥渆ngineer鈥� by claiming to be such when they are not. Remember, the word comes from the Latin root ingenerare, meaning to create. Repairing items is not the same.

I found out about this problem a long time ago when I went to my son鈥檚 school to discuss my career with the pupils as part of the school鈥檚 programme to teach the importance of good qualifications and higher education. The children did not understand what an engineer or a consultant was, the latter immediately being associated with the medical profession.

Some years ago, Michael Heseltine, President of the Board of Trade, advised the Engineering Board that he would get the title 鈥渆ngineer鈥� recognised by restricting its use to those who were registered with the board as a technician engineer or higher. They would be allowed to title themselves with 鈥淓ng鈥� in front of their names, in a similar way as, by registering with FEANI, engineers in the rest of Europe use Eur Ing. Like all government promises, however, the proposal fell by the wayside.

I would suggest Dr Strong redirects his efforts into encouraging the other engineering institutions and the Engineering Council to get the title 鈥渆ngineer鈥� recognised as a profession on a par with doctors and lawyers, in line with mainland Europe, together with the letters 鈥淓ng鈥� or perhaps 鈥淚ng鈥� only being allowed to be used by those registered with the council from incorporated upwards. Once this is done, we can start worrying about the CIBSE name.