New Zealand Engineering 1997 April

IPENZ News

The process for assessing professional competency for entry into the class of Member (M.IPENZ) has been under considerable scrutiny over the last 18 months to ensure that the assessment outcomes are, to use education jargon, valid and reliable. Professional competency standards have been developed to guide the interviewers in their assessments, training of interviewers has been instigated and documentation given to applicants has been substantially revised. I believe that our assessment systems are such that they compare very favourably to other professional engineering institutions which are recognised by IPENZ as having equivalent standards at the professional level. Assessing a peer's professional competency is not an easy task and we are very reliant on our Members or Fellows dedicating their time to reviewing the documentation and interviewing candidates as part of the Professional Review process. It was encouraging that over 70 Members or Fellows volunteered to undergo training as Professional Review interviewers in February when training sessions were held in Wellington and Auckland. The skills and knowledge imparted in these training sessions not only equips the participants so that they are able to competently fulfil the role of Professional Review interviewer, but they are also able to better guide graduate members in their places of work in relation to the graduate's professional formation. This is particularly important when these graduates are applying for the IPENZ Professional Review to assess their competency as a professional engineer.

A challenge to the profession is to find ways to assist graduate engineers in acquiring competence as a professional engineer. It is often assumed that graduates acquire competence as a professional through observations and experiences in their places of work, hence IPENZ has not, in the past, facilitated formal postgraduate courses aimed at assisting graduate engineers in their professional formation. Some larger employers of graduate engineers arrange in-house seminars designed to assist the new recruits in their integration into the workforce and raise the graduates' knowledge and skill level in matters pertaining to their work. Smaller firms do not, however, have the resources to facilitate such in-house training.

Many graduates enrol in postgraduate management programmes as it is recognised that the career advancement of graduate engineers will depend, not so much on their technical competence, but on their ability to integrate this technical knowledge and skill with their managerial ability. Still, there are many graduate engineers who undergo little or no formal training as part of their professional formation. The IPENZ Competency Development programme provides some guidance to graduate engineers in that they are able to track their work experience and identify professional competencies which they have practised and perhaps identify gaps in their professional formation. They can then take this information with them to their appraisal interviews and discuss with their supervising engineer ways to fill these gaps.

What IPENZ does is to identify the range of competencies that graduate engineers need to acquire as part of their professional formation; but what we don't do is provide a vehicle for this skill or knowledge acquisition. The Institute of Chartered Accountants of New Zealand is developing, in partnership with a tertiary education institution, modules titled The Business Environment, Compliance and Financial Management. From 1998 it will be compulsory for accounting graduates to complete these modules before being eligible to sit the Professional Competence Examination II so as to acquire Chartered (professional) status. These three modules will be aimed at developing professional judgement in applying knowledge in a range of business contexts. It is anticipated that the modules will be a distance learning package which will include regional block courses facilitated by a practising chartered accountant, as well as a lecturer from the tertiary institution contracted to develop the module content and ensuing assessment tools. The cost will be totally user-pays. The Institute of Chartered Accountants, is hoping to arrange for the modules to be cross-credited towards an MBA or postgraduate diploma.

The APESMA (Association of Professional Engineers, Scientists and Managers, Australia) Deakin University MBA programme has a `Professional Practice in New Zealand' unit which covers such things as an introduction to the NZ legal system, environmental legislation, protection of innovation, standards and conformance, taxation, the economic environment and there is the possibility that this course could be modularised and graduate engineers could be encouraged to complete modules before applying for entry into the class of Member (M.IPENZ). Certainly it would be sensible for immigrant engineers to complete this course and thereby gain an appreciation of the context in which engineers operate in New Zealand.

I would be interested in receiving comment on the issues I have raised above so that the IPENZ Qualifications and Education Advisory Group, which will be discussing the viability of facilitating professional development programmes at their next meeting, can take these views into consideration. My email address is vburton@ipenz.org.nz.

The Engineers Registration Board held a strategic planning meeting on 5 March where they debated issues pertaining to the Engineers Registration Act 1924. The present Act, although amended in 1928, 1944, 1949, 1953, 1972, 1977 and 1988, is still in need of further substantial amendment and it has been this task that has preoccupied the present Board and the Board before it. The questions asked at the strategic planning meeting were "should the Board continue with the proposed amendments?" and "should the Act be rewritten?" What followed was a discussion on the purpose of registration with general agreement being reached that while it was necessary to have a registration act there was now a need for a new and explicit purpose. The general feeling of the Board was to recommend to the incoming Board that the goal should be the formulation of a new Act. Rob Wilkinson and Pat McGill (Registrar) consequently are preparing a report, which will not only outline the perceived purposes and content of a new Act, but also outline a suggested process for reaching such an objective. Once the new Engineers Registration Board and the IPENZ Board have had an opportunity to discuss the issues raised in the report, a consultative process will begin to ensure all concerned parties have an opportunity to comment. If you wish, at this stage, to make any comments on this issue please email vburton@ipenz.org.nz.

During April all IPENZ members will receive a copy of the new IPENZ Handbook. The concept of a handbook, produced annually, was initiated by the Board last year as a progression from the Member Information Folder, first released in 1994. The handbook will contain information pertaining to IPENZ organisation, member services and benefits, relevant IPENZ documents, as well as a current list of members. This has been quite a major project for Gabrielle O'Connor at National Office and is all part of ensuring that members are informed of IPENZ services and organisational structures and policies. Members will have an easy way of accessing information pertaining to IPENZ. It is expected that the information contained in the handbook will be available on our world wide web pages so that any updates can be actioned immediately, ensuring members have access to accurate information at all times.

IPENZ welcomes any feedback on the handbook. Gabrielle's email address is gabrielle@ipenz.org.nz.

February 1997

Additions

TECHNICAL GRADUATES:
C P Gray
K A Mathias
K Prasad