Education and Licensing of Structural Engineers in the United States

Recognition in the USA In February, we published a letter from Mr C. J. Hawksworth, from Winchester, USA. We now have a caveat from Mr C. Shearer, living in the Pacific Northwest, to the effect that he believes Mr Hawksworth’s letter to be ‘very misleading ’. He writes: The impression one has from his letter is that all one needs to do to become registered in the USA is to have a note from the Institution, along with details of one’s college training. Mr Hawksworth does not appear to realise that each State in the USA has its own rules and regulations regarding professional registration. While I do not claim to know the rules and regulations for each State, I have heard that some States are very ‘easy-going’ and relaxed regarding registration. Mr Hawksworth appears to have the good fortune of residing in such a State. Verulam

In any organisation, the larger the group of senior engineers involved in determining the training programme of young engineers, the more objective will be the opinion as to what is required of that training. Different firms have different markets and therefore different priorities. B.P. Clancy

Over the last few years, there has been an increasing public awareness of the initiatives and influence of the European Commission (EC) in Brussels. This perception has been extending beyond household matters, such as the notorious agricultural price/surplus manipulations, into some areas which may be relevant to this conference. Three of the most important are: education and training standards mutual recognition of qualifications regular visitor to Bmsels. on the Eurocode Steering technical standards and Codes of Practice. D.W. Lazenby