On the 1^st April 2013 ECSA officially launched the new registration system. Initially this has been done for the category of Professional Engineer, and will be followed by those for Professional Certificated Engineer, Professional Technologist and Professional Technician. The current (or now termed the legacy system) may be selected by the candidate for Pr Eng up until the end of March 2015, but it is expected that most new candidates will see the advantages of pursuing the new system.

For the uninitiated who explores the process of applying as a candidate for registration, the extent of the documentation and the interpretation of the requirements can be somewhat overwhelming. It is all contained on the ECSA website.

The essential differences between the two systems is that the legacy system focuses on the input criteria or training and experience content, whereas the new system is based on an outcomes content and assessed against eleven specific assessment criteria. Both pursue the achievement of professional competence as the goal.

Of interest is that the process is generic for all engineering disciplines and it only identifies the discipline where the guidelines require that the type of workplace environment must be appropriate for that discipline. The essence is to develop professional competence and not a high level of technical skills. One could readily conclude that the competence criteria would apply to just about any other profession. After all, the ability to communicate well, be ethical, use knowledge, analyse and solve problems and manage effectively must apply to any profession, whether it be medical, legal, accounting or in soft skills. It is perhaps a chance now for engineering resources to take up more assertive and visible roles in structures outside of pure engineering. Could this be a mechanism by which the engineering profession enhances its social status to be better represented on corporate boards and government structures?

The need for professionalism within the engineering ranks is being identified by many employers with whom the Institution has interacted recently. Commentary such as needing the types of competency skills outlined in the criteria rather than super technical skills are becoming evident. "We can get technical know-how relatively easily today from the available sources, but we cannot get the professional competencies without the sort of development you are describing” is not an infrequent response.

Accordingly, the SAIMechE is developing the Professional Development Programme (PDP) to extend the fundamentals of the ECSA requirements into a facilitated training and development initiative that effectively enables the candidate to readily envisage a practical process of achieving the required outcomes in their workplace environment, how to interact with the supervisor and mentor and participate in peer group sessions to progressively practice and reach a competence standard at professional level to confidently assume responsible roles in industry and society.

SAIMechE has recently launched the Road to Registration workshop on the events calendar. In due course, it envisages each of the eleven exit level outcomes being offered as a full day workshop for the benefit of registered and unregistered members.