Education and Skills

All aspiring engineers and technicians should have access to world-class education and training programmes to help them develop industry-relevant knowledge, skills and behaviours.

The engineering profession supports the development of such high-quality programmes, including apprenticeships, training, qualifications, degrees and other educational programmes. Many of these support individuals on their journey towards professional registration.

A key element of the Engineering Council’s role as the regulator for the UK engineering profession is to set and maintain standards for professional registration. This includes setting the criteria that education programmes must meet to become recognised, through approval or accreditation. Prospective students, employers and society have the assurance that recognised programmes meet the standards set by the engineering profession.

Recognition processes, carried out by Licensed Professional Engineering Institutions (PEI), assess whether education and training programmes fully or partially meet the education requirements for professional registration. Joining a Licensed PEI is the first step towards becoming professionally registered.

The approval process looks at the overall design, coverage and assessment strategy for programmes that may be delivered in multiple locations and seeks evidence that satisfactory quality assurance arrangements are in place. The accreditation process looks at programmes delivered in a specific location.

Routes to professional registration

To achieve professional registration, your competence and commitment will be assessed against the standards in UK-SPEC or the ICTTech Standard, through a ‘professional review’. This is a peer review, carried out by engineers and technicians who are professional registered, competent and trained to undertake this assessment.

Knowledge, understanding and skills form an essential part of competence. This provides the necessary foundation of underpinning logic and analytical capabilities. Formal education is one way of demonstrating the necessary underpinning knowledge and understanding, but it is not the only way. All applicants’ knowledge, understanding and skills are assessed against the UK-SPEC standard of competence and commitment which sets the minimum requirements.

Applicants who have achieved the required learning outcomes through recognised qualifications will need not to provide any further evidence about their education.

Qualifications which provide the required level of knowledge and understanding are:

• EngTech: A recognised qualifications(s) or apprenticeships at Level 3 A level/T level or equivalent
• ICTTech: A recognised qualification(s) or apprenticeships at Level 3 A level/T level or equivalent
• IEng: An accredited Bachelors degree or equivalent qualification(s) or apprenticeship
• CEng: An accredited integrated Masters degree or a combination of accredited Bachelors and Masters degrees, or equivalent qualification(s) or apprenticeship

In some cases, recognition demonstrates not just that a programme develops the knowledge and understanding that underpins competence, but also that competence is demonstrated through completion of the programme.  

Applicants who do not have the recognised qualifications will instead have an individual assessment of their qualifications and any other relevant learning.