September/October 2018

PE Report
Why Wait? Idaho Approves Early Taking of PE Exam

In July, Idaho became the latest state to permit engineers to take the PE exam prior to obtaining the minimum of four years of experience and submitting a license application to the state licensing board.

Traditionally, licensure candidates have been allowed to take the PE exam only after passing the FE exam and gaining four years of approved experience. Beginning in 2005, however, states began to consider allowing candidates to take the PE exam before meeting the experience requirement. The four years of experience would still be required, but they would not be a prerequisite for taking the exam.

In addition to Idaho, 14 other states allow the early taking of the PE exam: Arizona, California, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming.

The move is part of the Idaho Board of Professional Engineers and Professional Land Surveyors’ effort to eliminate barriers to entering the profession. Since 2015, the board has aligned engineering education minimum requirements with the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying’s model to improve licensure mobility. The board has also allowed engineers to take the FE exam without prior board approval; allowed engineering faculty with PhDs to obtain a restricted license without examination; stopped disqualification of applicants who failed a “professional exam” multiple times; and simplified the licensing process by accepting the use of an NCEES record for initial licensure.

NSPE is in favor of state licensing boards allowing candidates to take the PE exam early, as long as they have met the educational requirements for licensure and passed the FE exam. The Society also believes that the four years of progressive engineering experience indicated in the NCEES Model Law should remain unchanged, and licensure candidates who pass the PE exam early needed to obtain the requisite number of years of engineering experience before becoming licensed.

To provide guidance to engineering professionals on the path to licensure, NSPE has published When Can I Take the PE Exam? States Allowing Examination Before Experience, which covers the state-by-state details. The report can be found at www. nspe.org; click on “Advocacy,” then “Reports on State PE Laws and Rules.”