Why Engineering Licensure?

1. The simplest analogy for professional licensing is the driver’s license. A 16 year old who passes the driving exam is certainly not a good driver, but the thread of revocation is ever present. It is that threat that urges responsible conduct.
2. All other professions are licensed by the states and territories - from barbers to dentists. See your own state agency website
3. The Commerce Clause in the Constitution grants the states the right to regulate business.
4. A certification is not a license. There is no legal guarantee that a certifying authority is not capricious, because that authority is a business regulated by profit motive alone.
5. Public safety is, of course, the primary goal.

Dan Donahoe, Ph.D., P.E.
Millcreek, UT

There are many examples of why we need engineering licensure. I recently came across a 74-minute documentary titled Forgotten Tragedy: The Story of the St. Francis Dam.

The story is about a dam in California that failed and killed over 400 people in 1928. Per Amazon Prime: “The 1928 collapse of the St. Francis Dam in the hills outside of Los Angeles, is the largest man-made disaster of the 20th century. Now largely forgotten on all but a local level, this tragedy killed over 400 people, changed the course of civil engineering and ended the career of an engineering legend. Featuring newly-discovered film footage from 1928, this film is the first to tell the tale.”

As a result of this disaster, California instituted engineering licensure.

Tony Grgas, P.E.
Cincinnati, OH

There are two basic reasons why licensure works. One is the commitment to ethics that is required (and not required by certification), the other is accountability. Not just the accountability of having the insurance company pay off, but accountability to peers with the ultimate penalty of ending your career. Those two factors are what really protect the public health, safety, and welfare. Certification has its place and is useful in choosing a designer, but does not enforce the required ethics and provide accountability to your peers. Now you can complain that the licensure process has flaws (and it does!), but the whole notion of going around until you find a certification process that “fits” reeks of not protecting the public safety.

Eric Tappert, P.E.
Coopersburg, PA

NSPE HQ @NSPE | Oct 25

Mutton O'Connell from Pace University, Rochelle Williams from @NSBE, Bacilla Angel from @SHPE and Jennifer Smith from @Raytheon share their educational, mentoring and vocational experiences in the engineering field. #GirlDay2020

@NovaEngineer | Feb 20

Villanova's chapter of the National Society of Professional Engineers sponsored an "Order of the Engineer" ring ceremony to kick off Engineers Week. This year, 33 graduating seniors and practicing engineers were initiated. #OrderoftheEngineer @NSPE