Becoming CEng or IEng

Technicians aspiring to be Incorporated Engineers (IEng)

In any technical role it is essential to keep up to date with developments in your specialist field. It is also important to maximise your employability by being flexible and adaptable. Most modern professionals will need to change direction at times during their career in response to changing employment opportunities.

The IET can help to support this development in many ways through access to information, advice and opportunities.

If your career development aspirations are towards greater management or technical responsibility, then it is possible to transfer your professional registration to another category. For most technicians this is likely to be to Incorporated Engineer but the most technically demanding standard of Chartered Engineer is also possible.

Incorporated Engineer will often naturally follow from increased responsibility and the knowledge needed to exercise it. Where this type of career development does not naturally occur, then stretching your technical knowledge is essential. Increasing your potential through higher education with formal qualifications, may help to support a career move into an engineering management role. Achieving a Higher National qualification such as an Higher National Diploma (HND) or foundation degree in engineering or technology can be supported with further learning to bachelor level. An accredited bachelor’s degree in engineering or technology is the benchmark for IEng registration. You need to demonstrate how you have learnt the relevant knowledge and what you did to learn it.

A development programme will provide you with a series of challenging opportunities to develop your key technical skills and knowledge. Development opportunities should build on your work history and be gained through further learning, workplace learning, self-directed learning, increased responsibility, engineering projects, training courses.

To develop your job role you should aim to:

• to maintain and manage applications of current and developing technology;
• apply technology effectively to an aspect of your work;
• apply theoretical and practical methods;
• apply technical and commercial management skills;
• manage the planning and organisation of tasks, people and resources;
• budgetary control;
• contribute to continuous improvement in your business processes;
• have involvement in design, development, manufacture, construction and operation.

Natural career progression from Technician to Chartered Engineer is rare without extensive experience as an Incorporated Engineer.

In order to determine your suitability for IEng, why not carry out a self-assessment against each of the UK-SPEC competences [new window] online in Career Manager? If you are not ready to apply just yet, you can register your intention to work toward IEng professional registration on Career Manager or through our initial professional development service. As a member you can also seek the support of an IET mentor to support you through your career development or you can contact a professional registration advisor (PRA)  if you have any questions about an IEng application. PRAs are members with detailed knowledge of the requirements and routes to professional registration.

Incorporated Engineers aspiring to be Chartered Engineers (CEng)

You have met the standards set out for professional engineering competence and commit through your on-going listing in the professional register to continuous development.

Chartered Engineers recognise creative responsibility for bringing new designs and ideas to fruition and command highly technical and professional leadership roles.

A career development plan aiming for Chartered Engineer would usually require formal learning to develop knowledge and analytical ability to the benchmark “masters level”, unless you have already had a strong academic grounding.

To develop your job role you should aim to:

• develop leadership skills;
• improve or exploit new and advancing technology;
• pioneer technology;
• apply services or management methods;
• design, development, research and analytical solutions.

In order to determine your suitability for CEng, why not carry out a self-assessment against each of the UK-SPEC competences [new window] online in Career Manager? If you are not ready to apply just yet, you can register your intention to work toward CEng professional registration on Career Manager or through our initial professional development service. As a member you can also seek the support of an IET mentor to support you through your career development or you can contact a professional registration advisor (PRA)  if you have any questions about CEng application. PRAs are members with detailed knowledge of the requirements and routes to professional registration.