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To: CanaGuy

A good reason not to live in Canada then.

The Wright brothers were engineers by any standard of the word but Canada would deny them calling themselves engineers or doing the work of an engineer?

Was Thomas Edison and engineer?

There are many other examples in history...

Has Bill Gates ever acted as a software engineer? No degree... They would stop him from doing it?

A degree does not make the engineer nor even prove competence. The individual does.

I’ll assume you are speaking of civil engineering which is different than many other fields of engineering.


10 posted on 04/22/2011 2:31:07 AM PDT by DB
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To: DB
In Canada, all Engineering comes under the umbrella of a "profession", likewise medicine, nursing, architects, etc. Similarly, you can't call yourself a "doctor" or a "nurse" in Canada if you don't have the credentials. Would you entrust your daughter's brain surgery to some garage experimenter? Or swallow pills that weren't manufactured by accredited chemical engineers? Or use bridges that collapse, or cars that fail, or furnaces that burn your house down?

In Canada, it's quite simple. You must have a professional engineer sign and stamp all engineering drawings. It's a legal requirement, just as similar requirements apply for an architect, or a chemical engineer, or a mechanical engineer. It's the way it is.

I didn't make the laws, but many years ago I wanted to be an Electrical Engineer. The quickest way was to get my BScEE (in Canada, 5 years), then spend the apprenticeship, and only then be allowed to claim yourself an Engineer, be allowed to write "P.Eng." or "ing." after your name, and work as an Engineer.

It's a grueling process. In my first year, there were 350 students; when I graduated, there were 46 EE's. The process is an attempt to filter out incompetance and produce engineers as efficiently and effectively as possible. On rare occasions a rotten apple will slip through, but they won't last long, because it's even more grueling in industry than it is in school.

I don't know if it should be like this, but it is. So I buckled down and went through it, because I wanted to be a Professional Engineer and perform significant work. And I did. I'm retired now, but would do it all over again in an instant.

God bless!

14 posted on 04/22/2011 3:39:22 AM PDT by CanaGuy (Go Harper! We still love you!)
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