EngTech and other professionals in the Fire Industry.

[Firetech]

Hello everybody, nice to see the site up and working again.
With regards to the UK fire industry, I am interested to know the status on the ground (the real world) of Engineering Technicians (EngTech) professionals in the United Kingdom.

For example, is an EngTech most times a preferential person to employ over those who are not, and do they enjoy a higher salary, or is experience in a particular product and years on the job more the deciding factor? Those of you who own your own businesses; do you sit up and take a bit more notice when you see ‘EngTech’ on a CV?

My suspicions of this is that it is less of a factor ‘back home’ and more of a factor for companies sending people out to work in historically well established British trade areas, like the Middle East for example?
Also, how many EngTech are there on the forum, Incorporated Engineers and Charted Engineers? Did most of you register with the IFE, some perhaps with the IET or perhaps even an electrical route especially in the detection side, or mechanical on the sprinkler part of the industry?

  To start the ball rolling, I am not an EngTech, and the questions are to satisfy personal curiosity only, this is NOT associated with any institution or body. 

For those who have an interest, I am a British Citizen who lives in South Africa, many of our standards are direct copies of the BS, with slight changes on the main related to the type of cables we use (due to cost).

In SA there are very few barriers of entry into the industry, outside of the normal business registration requirements and compulsory registration with a Statutory Body here called the Private Security Regulatory Authority, our fingerprints are taken and kept on a database, ethical business practices are enforced and audits are conducted by this authority, but they are mostly concerned with the regulation of firearms in our very large private security industry. As I am not in that line of work we don’t see them that much, besides the occasional inspection of our business systems such as invoicing etc.

An attempt was made some time ago to introduce an Artisan training scheme in the mid 90’s which culminated in a one year certificate course at a local Technicon (Polytechnic University). Before that in the 80’s there was also a qualification here called ‘Alarm Artisan level 1 and 2’ that was run from Dept of Manpower approved training centres, smoke detection systems was a part of the trade test. These were both for installers on smoke detection systems.

There is currently a new intuitive underway to introduce a compulsory registration but it is an upward battle, and wars are declared, fought and peace sued for in less time than the government takes to decide such matters. If it happens we will have a person deemed ‘Competent’ on much the same line as a Registered Lift Technician who would have to sign off a job, and have legal liability. Unlikely in my opinion, but who knows.

[Benzerari]

I think; I share some ideas with you, I personally found the registration too tight and works in one way system only..., regardless of the qualification you have, the registration looks more for the managerial roles rather than academic or other none directly related experiences and skills, you may be Engineer academically but it's your work experience and ability to demonstrate that you are good enough, of resolving professional related problems that promotes you...

Also the title of Technician in UK is quite the same as Engineer; this is not the case elsewhere if you say you are technician you are far less considered as Engineer i.e. in France and Germany or even other countries...
I still don't know why in UK Technician and Engineer are quite same, or am I wrong?

[Firetech]

Benzerari, mate, I am not sure that we agree at all on that.

In my opinion a professional engineer (whichever of the three types) is a person who not only has a suitable academic qualification, but also has an appropriate level of people management, project management and budgeting skills, as his work is not only technical, but involves managing the process or life cycle of a project.

To illustrate this further, I occasionally need to hire a Professional Engineer to do designs and inspections for me that involve Intrinsic Safe designs, and expect far more for my money than merely someone who knows how to study and write an exam properly, (which to an extent is on the main one needs to do to get some qualifications) I also expect a professional person in the legal sense that can sign off a job, and has legal liability for it in the future.
Sort of like a medical doctor is not considered a doctor simply because he has a medical degree, but must also complete an internship, same with a charted accountant or lawyer, the academic qualification is one (important) part of the commitment.

The title of Engineer in the UK seems to be rather loosely used, much the same as the title of technician is in SA. It is unusual here to find a person her calling himself an engineer unless he is actually one, but we do all call ourselves technician when in fact we really are not, at the end of the day, in terms of a registered trade test, etc.   

[Thomas Brookes]

Just checked out of interest Wikipedia definitions,

A technician is generally someone in a technological field who has a relatively practical understanding of the general theoretical principles of that field,

An engineer is a skilled technical professional. Engineers are concerned with developing economical and safe solutions to practical problems, by applying mathematics and scientific knowledge while considering technical constraints

[Firetech]

Yep. That pretty much illustrates the difference between a technician and an engineer.

[CivvyFSO]

A 'technician' came to get a stain out of my new settee the other week.

I agree that both titles are widely misused.

[Firetech]

Civvy, my point precisely. You should have gone the professional route.

I suggest that you cut your losses with the current job, water under the bridge, and start again. This time retain an Architect to manage the process, who will in turn appoint (after a tender process) a Charted Settee Engineer, who will then designate an Incorporate Engineer (licensed by The Ancient and Most Noble Society of Settee Engineers) and a team of EngTechs (Set) to clean your couch.

The spot that was dirty will be whiter than white (even though it was originally green) due to the use of their professional and patented cleaning equipment "Hydrobromic No Hands Cleaning Liquid™" with catalyst dihydrogen monoxide (DHMO) and spot on the chair, and perhaps even your hands will be gone!!!

 

[Benzerari]

In my opinion the registration is not a must, it may help a little bit, but wouldn't guaranty a job for what so ever, you still have to prove your competence in your particular field, also I think that the criteria to be either EngTech or IncEng or CharEng has to be re-looked at from time to time to be more flexible, I realy hate that complexity of the criteria when stating i.e. B1, C2, E4.... those criteria do not totally reflect your competence.

Couple of years ago when it used to be IEE instead of IET, I had three different status of titles from three different people of IEE admin, some said you may start to work through CharEng, and another said; no you can't be either an IncEng yet but you could be an affiliated Eng, the third one said you have to start from EngTech and build up you membership from there, it depends with who your one to one session will be,... in addition; I can not imagine a 'Dr' classified in the same rank with some one having GCSE only and with some managerial experience, it doesn't make sense to me, but still; I do respect their way of seeing things...