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Subject:RE: Re: Definition of Engineer (was: What to do?) From:"Gene Kim-Eng" <techwr -at- genek -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:30 Oct 2003 22:16:03 GMT
Just to put some perspective on this, it is worth noting
that only about 20% of the people currently working as
engineers in the US hold PE licenses. Licenses are
generally required to sign off on certain critical
engineering documents, and as credentials for acceptance
by a court as an "expert witness." However, AFAIK there
are no locations within the US where laws limit the ability
of private sector companies to apply the title of "engineer"
to an unlicensed employee. At most, the unlicensed
engineer will not be able to sign off on certain documents,
and many companies have only a few PEs within their larger
staffs of unlicensed engineers to take care of this need.
Also, licensing of engineers allows an exchange between
education and experience. For example, it is entirely
possible (though somewhat rare these days) for someone
with no degree but a lot of work experience to substitute
experience for education and qualify to take the PE exam.
YMMV outside the USA.
Gene Kim-Eng
------- Original Message -------
On
Thu, 30 Oct 2003 12:21:18 -0800 (PST) k k?wrote:
The idea of responding to the tech writer's image
problem by requiring some kind of licensing procedure
is an inward-looking approach that in my opinion is
edging toward taking votes on who gets thrown out of
the lifeboat. You know that if we did have officially
required testing and licensing, some people now making
a living as tech writers would no longer be able to do
so and would have to find some other way to pay the
bills.
Licensing cannot do any good for tech writers unless
you also find a way to keep companies from exploring
other means of hiring writers. At the same time you
set up a licensing board for tech writers, are you
going to enact other laws that prevent tech companies
from hiring ex-newspaper reporters?
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