January/February 2017

PE Report
Vermont Pursues Mandatory Continuing Education Requirement

Vermont has moved a step closer to mandatory continuing education requirements for professional engineers.

The Vermont Board of Professional Engineering is implementing a professional competency requirement of 30 professional development hours for license renewal. The Vermont Society of Professional Engineers supports the enactment of continuing education.

Once finalized, licensees will have to earn 30 PDHs in qualifying courses and activities during a biennial renewal period. The courses and activities must be related to the following areas: technical topics directly related to the practice of engineering; awareness of professional practice ethical concerns and conflicts; an understanding of standards of practice or care; or engineering management.

Licensees will be able to obtain professional development hours in the following ways:

• College courses (10 PDHs per semester credit; six PDHs per quarter credit);

• Continuing education courses, seminars, presentations, and workshops, including those provided by employers outside of normal on-the-job training;

• Teaching or presenting college and/or continuing education courses and seminars. PDHs may be earned at double the presentation length; however, repetitions of the same material may not be credited and full-time faculty may not claim teaching credit associated with their regular duties;

• Authoring published papers, articles, or books related to the licensee’s specialty discipline or practice (five PDHs each and not to exceed 15 PDHs in a biennial period) and;

• Active participation in development of engineering codes and standards (up to two PDHs per code or standard). PDHs earned through college courses, continuing education courses, and teaching and presenting courses may be earned in person, through the Internet, correspondence, by television, or through prerecorded media.

NSPE supports mandatory continuing professional competency for licensed engineers in addition to comity among licensing jurisdictions to provide practice mobility of professional engineers. To promote comity NSPE encourages uniformity in continuing education programs through use of the NCEES Model Rules for Continuing Professional Competence and urges its state societies to assist state licensure boards in implementing these rules in all jurisdictions.

For details, see NSPE’s State-By-State Summary of Continuing Education Requirements for Professional Engineers.