Incorporated and Chartered Engineer Guidance
Q & A
What is Professional Registration?
- The UK maintains a register of engineers and engineering technicians who have been assessed as demonstrating engineering competence and commitment to standards laid down by the UK’s Engineering Council. Some 35 professional engineering institutions including the Institution of Royal Engineers of which you are a member are licensed to make this assessment.
Why should I seek registration?
- There are many reasons. Foremost is provides a publicly recognized standard of your engineering competence – military engineering skills are not always widely understood – and there are significant benefits to you, the individual, both during and after your military career.
Why do I need to make an initial application and what follows next?
- Achieving IEng or CEng requires effort both from you, the applicant and from us, institution staff and more importantly, the volunteers: professional engineers ready to assist and mentor you through the process. The initial application enables our Route Advisory Panel to make a preliminary assessment – with relatively little input from you – to ensure that you are appropriately equipped through education training and experience to undertake a full professional application with a reasonable chance of success. Or, if you are not ready, to signpost routes to prepare for professional registration in due course.
- The Route Advisory Panel convenes regularly and at not greater than 2-monthly intervals to review all initial applications. You should receive their guidance within 3 – 4 weeks of them meeting, together with instructions from the Institution covering the next steps you need to take. Full details of the process can be found in the Institution Registration Handbook.
What happens if my academic qualifications aren’t sufficient?
- You shall be required to submit further evidence that your military and/or construction engineering knowledge and understanding equates to degree level prior to making your professional application. This interim step is called Stage 2. We provide separate detailed guidance and mentor support from this point forward. A comprehensive statement at Box 4 may suffice to meet this requirement.
What happens next?
- Once this review of your qualifications is complete you will be invited to submit a professional review report (PRR) supported by evidence from sponsors. Your engineering competence will be assessed against the UKSPEC standard and reviewed at interview. When successful your name will be submitted to the Engineering Council for inclusion on the UK’s register of professional engineers. Both the PRR and interview are mandated by the Engineering Council for anyone applying for professional registration through any licensed institution.
When Should I Start My Initial Application?
You may seek advice at any time but we recommend you make your own assessment using the guidance set out in the UK-SPEC and discuss it with your colleagues and chain of command. With few exceptions, the careers offered and followed by officers and soldiers in the Royal Engineers are so diverse that it is difficult to specify precisely when an individual achieves the appropriate level of education and competence in terms of “years served”, “qualifications” and “rank”. Generally, the higher the academic base, the fewer the years of additional experience are required. The table below is a guide and should be treated with caution. Each individual application stands on its own merits.
| Academic Base | Relevant Experience | Remarks |
| For IEng: | ||
| Accredited BEng honours degree or equivalent | 4 – 10 years | Some Direct Entry officers and garrison engineers.
|
| Foundation Degree/HND/HNC in Engineering or an honours degree with a technological or scientific basis | 7 – 10 years | The majority of Direct Entry officers, ClkWks / MPFs, some specialised NCOs including ME GEO. |
| ND/NC/NVQ Level 3/4 Engineering | 8 -12 years | Non-degree officers and WOs & SNCOs who have completed Fd Sgts or Plant Sgt training, some specialist fitters and drivers |
| No appropriate qualifications but relevant experience | 15 + years | May be applicable to some members who are no longer serving but who have achieved deep understanding of a relevant military engineering specialisation |
| For CEng: | ||
| Accredited MEng master’s degree or equivalent | 4 – 10 years | |
| BEng (Hons) degree, or an engineering or cognate degree with sufficient scientific basis of an equivalent standard | 7 – 10 years | |
| HND/HNC/FTC Engineering | 8 – 12 years | |
| No appropriate qualifications | 15 – 20 years |
Table 1
Is IEng just for the artisan trades and the ClkWks / MPF Roster?
No. It is a common misconception that professional registration is only about demonstrating your civil engineering and construction skills and experience. Whilst engaging in such projects undoubtedly provides useful evidence, you are military engineers and your competence can be demonstrated equally or better by drawing on the full spectrum of your experience from relevant courses, military engineering operations and exercises.
“The challenges facing military engineers are often complex and set in a rapidly changing context with no easy solution. Sappers must therefore apply ingenuity as they strive to solve problems, leveraging from extant wisdom but applying original thought. A determination to absorb complexity and convey simplicity is key, not least because the most brilliant solutions are those that are inherently simple”. Extract: Royal Engineers Primer (Army Code 72026) Page 7
