Petition for the protection of the title "Engineer"

[Steve]

Taken from an e-mail sent to my uni account today:

An online petition to Tony Blair to improve the status of engineers in the UK as recently been created. The petition is being signed by professional engineers and students alike, it would be good if we could add a few Bristol students names to the list to push it up the parliamentary agenda.
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From NCE Plus

Astronautics engineer Jon Jennings has this week leapt on the online petition bandwagon to call for the title of "engineer" to be a protected title. Jennings has joined an escalating list of people using 10 Downing Street's online petition trial to drum up support for his campaign to restore respect in engineers.

"Car mechanics, plumbers and electricians are now commonly referred to as engineers and banks now regard engineers as semi skilled," says his petition.

With 2,400 signatories to date, the petition already tops the "business and industry" category. But it still lags well behind the road pricing petition which received 1.7M signatories before it closed on Tuesday and even falls short of the 3,707 who want the prime minister to stand on his head and juggle ice-cream.

So if you agree that the status of the engineer is undervalued in society please sign the petition:

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Engineer-Status/

Not something I've really thought about, but having had the issue highlighted, when I finish my degree I'd like to call myself an engineer and know that the name stands for something.

I'm sure a few others on here will feel the same way.

Cheers,
Steve.

[tiggerai]

I, Tiggerai BEng (Hons) have signed.

[herulach]

Tbh i disagree, i have an MPhys, but i dont call myself a physicist, im a banker.

Equally, if someones job title is engineer, thats what it is. You cant say oh i dont want to be associated with that job because it devalues my qualification, it doesnt.

Would i be entitled to call myself an engineer if i didnt turn down the aerospace job i was offered? How would you decide who got to be called what, and how would you police it?

[kidzer]

Im studying at RGU's school of Engineering - doing a BSc, what does that make me when I graduate?

Eitherway, I can see where the petition is coming from, but I struggle to see the difference between an Electrician, and an Electrical Engineer - does the latter just have a greater skills set?

[g8ina]

I will sign in a bit. HNC Electronics + Software Engineering isn't great by anyone's standards, but it did get me signed up to one of the Institute's for a year or two in the mid 90s. Now I'm medically retired it doesn't matter so much personally, but every little helps.

[Funkstar]

Electrical Engineer
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrical_engineering
summary: study, application and design


Electrician (or 'sparky' up here)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrician
summary: installation

[0iD]

I am an engineer! Mechanical Design currently for Siemens Power Generation via Eimco Water Technologies.

Signed.

[schmunk]

MEng (Hons) - Tax Adviser

[Moby-Dick]

BEng - DBA

Metallurgy and SQL - who'd have thought they make such good bed fellows.

you can call yourself what ever you want. At the end of the day , if you are a monkey , you'll still be a monkey

[Tarffie]

I've got to say, I hate that damn petition site now.

[Moby-Dick]

its a load of pony made more so by weaksauce petitions ( my own personal view )

It seems every other thread I see these days seem to be about a petition of some sort of other.

utter waste of bandwidth

[Funkstar]

^^ ditto

[JPreston]

I'm going to start a petition to stem the number of worthless and trivial petitions that keep springing up.

[joshwa]

I'm going to start a petition to stem the number of worthless and trivial petitions that keep springing up.

noooooo!!! don't do it!!

I find it funny that the goverment have an online petition website!! the madness! the government listening to it's people? where was this petition when the Iraq war happened?

If "engineer" means "I have a degree" then so be it , perhaps it should stay that way?

I find it annoying enough trying to remember what my "Official" job title is at work, or whether I even have one it could be one of the following... (although I do do more than just the title says, my primary job is IT/PC Support)

Senior Technical Support Officer, Senior Technician, IT Technician, Computer Technician, PC Support Technician, Desktop Support Analyst, Technical Support Analyst, Technical Support Engineer*, Customer Support Engineer*, Rollout Engineer... etc

* these titles were for a Telecoms engineer type jobs on itjobs

[joshwa]

Perhaps we need a petition for this:

"Local authorities are seeking wide new powers to seize vehicles without a court order in a move that could affect thousands of innocent motorists.

A private Bill going through Parliament with minimal debate has been promoted by Transport for London and local authorities in the capital."

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new...cle1438284.ece

[Tarffie]

the madness! the government listening to it's people?

They don't until a petition hits 1.8 million signatures and they need a reason to close it to save money.