New Zealand Engineering 1999 July

IPENZ News

Lack of graduate training schemes affecting engineering standards

May 1999 additions to and changes in the classes of membership

Lack of graduate training schemes affecting engineering standards

The key to graduate engineers acquiring the competencies expected of a professional engineer, as early as possible in their career, is their participation in a graduate training programme.

An analysis of the IPENZ professional review results for the 1998 year showed that 98 percent of all candidates that were assessed as not yet meeting the professional engineering entry standard, had not been on a graduate training programme.

Graduates of engineering degree programmes enter the work force with a degree which equips them with a broad range of engineering knowledge and skills. The degree provides a sound platform on which the graduate can build their skills and knowledge through experience, on-the-job training and perhaps continuing education. Employers will not reap the full benefits of their graduates unless they invest in their graduate engineers through the implementation of a graduate training programme.

The Institution of Professional Engineers New Zealand (IPENZ), for many years has had a monitored training programme for graduates. This consisted of young engineers recording their work activities on training report forms, having a relatively senior professional engineer as a mentor and, once a year, sending forms into IPENZ National Office for feedback on progress towards professional recognition.

In 1996, this programme was enhanced by the introduction of competencies. Not only do graduates now identify their work activities according to the level of responsibility and whether the activity is related to engineering "application" or "implementation", they also assess which competencies they have practised or acquired within their work activities. The key advantage of this system is that graduates can use the competencies to do what could be called a "gap analysis" - identify which competencies they feel they need to acquire, and then discuss with their mentor or supervisor what work activities or professional development activities they could be involved in, in the coming year, which would assist them in acquiring competency in that area.

The IPENZ Competency Development programme does not provide the actual training. It is believed that industry groups are best left to determine their own training needs, but it does provide a framework for graduate training which can be utilised by the wide variety of industry sectors that employ graduate engineers.

The other startling finding when analysing the 1998 professional review results was the variance of the pass rates by engineering discipline. The lowest pass rate was for professional review candidates employed in the area of the electrical/electronic/telecommunication. The pass rates for candidates working in this area was 69 percent whereas the pass rate in the civil engineering sector was 90 percent. The key difference was the high proportion of civil engineering candidates who had been participating in the IPENZ Graduate Competency Development Programme, whereas a low number of candidates from the electrical/electronic/telecommunication area had been participating in the programme.

One explanation given was that the civil engineering sector had remained relatively stable over the past five to eight years and businesses were therefore focusing some of their activity on graduate training. On the other hand the telecommunication, energy and electronic areas had been, and in some cases were continuing to go, through a period of rapid change. One key area which seemed to have been overlooked within the process of change was graduate training, and this had now impacted on the ability of the graduates to reach the competency level expected of a professional engineer within the normal expected time frame.

There was no doubt in the minds of the 1998 professional review interviewers that the graduate engineers in the electrical/electronic/telecommunications area had the capability to gain professional recognition. The key weakness identified was that the candidates’ engineering judgement had not been advanced to the stage that they could be recognised as professional engineers, and that good mentoring by other more senior professional engineers and a range of engineering experiences was the key to developing this engineering judgement.

It is vital to the future health of the engineering profession that more graduate engineers are given the opportunity to participate in structured training programmes. IPENZ can help. The IPENZ Graduate Competency Development Programme has received very positive evaluations and all graduate members of IPENZ are entitled to request assistance in identifying a suitable mentor. IPENZ has a Career Development Endorsement Programme for Employers which is a way of identifying and providing market advantage, when employing graduates, to those firms that have developed systems which foster a learning culture within the organisation. This ensures graduate engineers are supported in their early years of work and can gain the training and experience needed to achieve recognition as a professional engineer as early as possible in their careers.

Virginia Burton

IPENZ Manager Qualifications, vburton@ipenz.org.nz