There are alternate ways
of qualifying for professional engineering positions for those who do not have
a degree in engineering:
Combination of education
and experience: college-level education, training, and/or technical experience
that furnished (1) a thorough knowledge of the physical and mathematical sciences
underlying professional engineering, and (2) a good understanding, both theoretical
and practical, of the engineering sciences and techniques and their applications
to one of the branches of engineering. The adequacy of such background must
be demonstrated by one of the following:
- Professional registration—Current
registration as a professional engineer by any State, the District of Columbia,
Guam, or Puerto Rico. Absent other means of qualifying under this standard,
those applicants who achieved such registration by means other than written
test (e.g., State grandfather or eminence provisions) are eligible only for
positions that are within or closely related to the specialty field of their
registration. For example, an applicant who attains registration through a
State Board's eminence provision as a manufacturing engineer typically would
be rated eligible only for manufacturing engineering positions.
- Written test—Evidence
of having successfully passed the Engineer-in-Training (EIT) examination,
or the written test required for professional registration, which is administered
by the Boards of Engineering Examiners in the various States, the District
of Columbia, Guam, and Puerto Rico.
Applicants who have passed
the EIT examination and have completed all the requirements for either (a)
a bachelor's degree in engineering technology (BET) from an accredited college
or university that included 60 semester hours of courses in the physical,
mathematical, and engineering sciences, or (b) a BET from a program accredited
by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) may be rated
eligible for certain engineering positions at GS-5. Eligibility is limited
to positions that are within or closely related to the specialty field of
the engineering technology program. Applicants for positions that involve
highly technical research, development, or similar functions requiring an
advanced level of competence in basic science must have a degree in professional
engineering.
Because of the diversity
in kind and quality of BET programs, graduates of other BET programs are required
to complete at least 1 year of additional education or highly technical work
experience of such nature as to provide reasonable assurance of the possession
of the knowledge, skills, and abilities required for professional engineering
competence. The adequacy of this background must be demonstrated by passing
the EIT examination.
- Specified academic
courses—Successful completion of at least 60 semester
hours of courses in the physical, mathematical, and engineering sciences
and in engineering that included the courses specified in the basic requirements.
The courses must be fully acceptable toward meeting the requirements
of a professional engineering curriculum.
- Related curriculum—Successful
completion of a curriculum from an accredited college or university
leading to a bachelor's degree in engineering technology or in an appropriate
professional field, e.g., physics, chemistry, architecture, computer science,
mathematics, hydrology, or geology, may be accepted in lieu of a degree
in engineering, provided the applicant has had at least 1 year of professional
engineering experience acquired under professional engineering supervision
and guidance. Ordinarily there should be either an established plan of
intensive training to develop professional engineering competence, or
several years of prior professional engineering-type experience, e.g.,
in interdisciplinary positions. (The above examples of related curricula
are not all-inclusive.)
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