Getting licensed in the UK 1

[dwelchel]

I am a PE in the US and was looking at possibly moving to the UK, does anyone know if the UK has some sort of comity for licensed engineers from the states? If not, how hard is it to get licensed there? Thanks in advance

 

[Maui]

I was actually pondering about this myself. I'm looking forward to seeing a response from someone who has accomplished it.

 

[Ingenuity]

There is the Washington Accord which is an international agreement between some countries (US and UK are both signatories). Link

However, the Accord is an accreditation agreement for professional engineering academic degrees, not licensure, and it is up to the individual countries (and their respective engineering registration organisations/societies) to accept a candidate for licensure via comity, as I understand it.

 

[GregLocock]

Bear in mind that licensure is not a legal part of the UK engineering scene. Engineer is not a protected term and there is no real equivalent of state licensing boards. So one reason you may not get much response is that it just isn't a thing. Chartership etc is somewhat similar in requirements to the PE, but it is not necessary to be chartered to sign off a design. Your best bet might be to go the Institute of X Engineers, where X is your specialty, and ask them.



Cheers

Greg Locock


New here? Try reading these, they might help FAQ731-376

http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?

 

[ScottyUK]

There are better destinations than the UK, look in the English-speaking southern hemisphere.

I think your biggest difficulty may be the differences in codes and standards in which you've gained your experience rather than your capability as an engineer, unless you work in a niche area where the depth of your expertise outweighs unfamiliarity with local codes. I think I would struggle to move to the US or Canada as an electrical engineer because the codes and materials are so different, but within the narrow sphere of power generation my knowledge of that specialty might tip the balance in my favour even though I'm not fully conversant with the North American codes.

 

[mgtrp]

I think I would struggle to move to the US or Canada as an electrical engineer

I moved from working in power generation in NZ (probably reasonably similar to UK) to Canada, and found the move fairly straight-forward. For the first few years, I tried to avoid doing too much work on things that were largely based on electrical codes (most work in power generation is beyond the codes, thankfully). Of course, I was a fairly young engineer then so expectations were lower. Ten years on, I'm relocating again to the UK in the next month or so--that feels a bit more daunting!

 

[MortenA]

Look in wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulation_and_licensure_in_engineering#United_Kingdom

In the UK you dont _need_ a license to call yourself an engineer, but in some industries they expect (or require) a protected title e.g. IEng (incorporated engineers) and CEng (chartered engineers).

In my country (Denmark) the title "engineer (or" in Danish ingeniør) is a protected title by law, but if you have a degree from one of the engineering colleges then you are automatically allowed to use the title. If you have this title from a non-danish institute i dont actually know if you are allowed to use the title.

Best regards, Morten

 

[bowlingdanish]

There are two in the UK, CEng through the ICE, and MIStructeE. The CEng is for both civil and structural and is not particularly technical, more professional competence. The IStructE would be similar to PE, in that you need to sit 7 hour technical exam with a low pass rate to achieve it, as well as an interview and full portfolio submission. This is seen as the highest benchmark.

In terms of recognition, if you have PE already, to get CEng you'll need to do a bunch of paperwork but it'll be a formality. To get mIStructE, you won't have to interview or submit a portfolio, but you'll still need to sit and pass the exam. No idea how it would compare to the PE exam in terms of difficulty.

To be honest I wouldn't bother, since in the UK its not legislative. Any serious employer with will recognise your PE as equivalent to MIStructE.