Message From The Continuing Education Committee
Since continuing education (CE)
requirements were introduced by many states, there has been a significant
increase in number of courses offered by various organizations. It is important
to keep in mind that an accurate record keeping is the responsibility of the
licensee.
Board of Professional Engineers
requires that adequate records must be maintained for a minimum of four years
for auditing purposes. Illinois Department of Professional Regulation requires
record availability for a period of 6 years for licensed professional engineers
and 5 years for licensed structural engineers.
As a benefit to our members, ASCE
Continuing Education Committee collects and maintains records of continuing
education events sponsored or co-sponsored by the ASCE St. Louis Section. These
records include: event announcements with date, location, topic, duration,
speakers’ name and qualifications, and list of participants. The event records
are provided by volunteer organizers. Members responsible for organizing
qualified continuing education events should submit event records to:
Jarek
M. Czernikiewicz, P.E.
Technical Manager
ABS Consulting
77 West Port Plaza, Suite 210
St. Louis, MO 63146
Tel: 314-819-1550
Fax: 314-819-1551
E-mail: jczernikiewicz@absconsulting.com
Continuing Education Links
Please see the latest newsletter for current continuing education opportunities.
http://pr.mo.gov/apelsla-continuing-education.asp
http://www.ilga.gov/commission/jcar/admincode/068/068014800001850R.html
http://www.ilga.gov/commission/jcar/admincode/068/068013800003250R.html
CONTINUING PROFESSIONAL COMPETENCY FOR
PROFESSIONAL ENGINEERS
ALL PERSONS LICENSED AS A PROFESSIONAL ENGINEER in the state of
licensee is audited, they will be asked to submit proof of attendance at
these activities.
PURPOSE of
this requirement is to reinforce the need for lifelong learning in order to
stay current with changing technology, equipment, procedures, processes, tools
and established standards. Qualifying activities must have a clear purpose and objective
which will maintain, improve or expand the skills and knowledge relevant to the
licensee’s field of practice. The licensee is given flexibility in selecting
among a broad range of subjects that are intended to strengthen or maintain
competency in technical, managerial (business) or ethical fields. Licensees are
encouraged to select meaningful activities which will be of benefit in the
pursuit of their chosen fields.
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT HOUR is defined as one contact hour of instruction or presentation.
It is the common denominator for the other units of credit. The maximum PDH for
a seminar that starts at
cannot exceed the actual contact clock hours.
ROUND off PDHs to the nearest half-hour. No activity under a
half-hour will be accepted for credit. For example, a qualifying activity
of 30 to 49 minutes would be reported as 0.5 PDH and an activity of 50 to 60
minutes would be reported as 1.0 PDH.
CARRYOVERS of
a maximum of 15 qualifying PDHs may be forwarded to
the subsequent renewal period.
CONTINUING EDUCATION UNITS (CEU) is a nationally recognized and uniform unit of
measure for continuing education and training. Since one CEU is awarded for
each 10 contact hours of instruction, it logically follows that one CEU is
equivalent to 10 PDHs. When a sponsor of PDH
activities fully follows the requirements of the International Association for
Continuing Education and Training (IACET) in awarding CEU’s,
10 PDHs
will be credited for 1 CEU. However, licensees should be aware that some
organizations may advertise CEU credit without having met the requirements of
the IACET. In addition, some organizations report 1 CEU of credit for each
contact hour of instruction. One contact hour equals one PDH.
DUALLY LICENSED ENGINEERS & LAND SURVEYORS must earn a total of 30 PDHs
every two years for renewal of their engineering license and a total of 20
additional PDU’s for renewal of their land surveying
license.
CONTINUING PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT OBTAINED IN
ANOTHER STATE will be allowed for
renewal of license in
RECORD KEEPING is the responsibility of the licensee. Adequate records must be
maintained for a minimum of four years for auditing purposes. Examples of
records required include, but are not limited to:
1. A log showing the type of activity claimed,
sponsoring organization, location, duration, instructor’s or speaker’s name,
and PDH credits earned. If audited, submission of specific information on each
activity is required. Simply stating
"attending education activities at ABC
Company" is not acceptable.
2. Attendance verification records in the form of
completion certificates or other documents supporting evidence of attendance.
All activities should have verification and the licensee must maintain
sufficient verification for each credit claimed.
SEMESTER/QUARTER HOUR CREDIT FOR COLLEGE COURSES. To qualify for this credit, a course must meet
regularly and participants tested with a passing grade required. One semester
hour is converted to 30 PDHs and one-quarter hour is
converted to 20 PDHs. Monitoring courses typically
does not require a test, and therefore credit is granted at 1/3
the rate specified in section (5) of Board Rule 4 CSR 30-11.015.
INTERACTIVE ACTIVITIES – Active participation and successful completion of
seminars, tutorials, workshops, short courses, correspondence courses, televised
or videotaped courses or in-house corporate sponsored educational courses are
allowed one PDH credit
for each contact hour. A correspondence course must require the
participant to show evidence of achievement with a final graded test.
TEACHING CREDITS for the instructor are twice that of the participants in qualifying
courses and seminars for the first time only.
PUBLISHED PAPERS, ARTICLES OR BOOKS which include the authoring of papers or articles
that appear in nationally circulated technical journals or trade magazines do
qualify for PDHs. A "news" article in a
technical or professional bulletin is not considered a published paper.
Although it is recognized that often many more hours are spent in being
an author of a publication, only a maximum of 5 PDHs
are allowed. Credit cannot be claimed until that article or paper is actually
published.
ACTIVE PARTICIPATION IN PROFESSIONAL AND TECHNICAL
SOCIETIES includes all technical and
professional societies, but does not include civic or trade organizations. PDHs are awarded only for those portions of the meeting
that meet the requirements of Board Rule 4 CSR 30-11.015. Licensees serving as
an officer and/or actively participating
in a committee of the technical professional society or organization shall
earn a maximum of 2 PDHs per organization. PDH
credits are not earned until the end of each year of service is completed.
DETERMINATION OF QUALIFYING ACTIVITIES must be made by the licensee. The Board does not
pre-approve courses or activities and can only distribute information on what
is and is not acceptable. With the broad range of opportunities to earn PDHs, it is up to the licensee to determine whether the
activity qualifies under this Board’s requirements.
For example, programs presented on topics that are not relevant to your
profession should not be claimed for PDH credit. The Board has final approval
of PDH credit.
AUDITS will
be randomly conducted after each two-year renewal period to insure compliance
with the Board’s requirements. If selected for audit, you will be contacted to
provide necessary documentation. Your records must be maintained for a period
of four (4) years and copies must be furnished, upon request, to the Board for
audit verification purposes.
EXEMPTIONS are
provided for those licensees serving honorably on full-time active duty in the
armed forces of the
send supporting documentation for the exemption.
THE NEXT RENEWAL PERIOD for all professional engineers is
issued in an odd year, will be renewed for one year only. After this one
year, they will be renewed for a two-year period every odd year. For licensees
originally licensed in an even year, and scheduled for renewal in December
2002, these renewals will be for a two-year period, resulting in even year
renewals. Professional development standards will go into
effect for the professional engineers with the December 2004 renewals.
Thus meaning, every engineer originally licensed in an even year and scheduled
to renew on or before
every two years. Therefore, when they next renew on or before
REINSTATEMENTS must be made within one year of the renewal date of a license by
submitting a reinstatement application, certifying completion of 30 PDHs within the preceding two years, satisfying current
requirements and submission of the required fee. Failure to reinstate within
one year of the renewal date, shall automatically cause the license to expire
and be void. The holder of the expired license or certificate shall have no
rights or privileges under such license, but may within the discretion of the
Board, and upon payment of the required fee, be relicensed
under the licensee’s original license number.
TYPICAL QUALIFYING ACTIVITIES:
· Completing
or attending courses, seminars, instruction, in-house programs or training which
relates to the licensee’s professional practice.
· Attending
technical or professional society meetings when a topic related to the
licensee’s professional practice is presented as a principal part of the
program.
· Teaching
a course for the first time.
· Attending
satellite downlink video courses where attendance is verified and material
meets requirements.
· Computer
software instructional courses which relate to the licensee’s technicalprofession.
· Management
or ethical courses which relate to the engineering profession.
· Correspondence
courses on topics related to licensee’s professional practice where lessons are
prepared, returned for correction and/or grading and testing at the end of the
course is required.
TYPICAL NON-QUALIFYING ACTIVITIES:
· Regular
employment
· Real
Estate licensing courses
· Personal,
estate or financial planning
· Self
study
· Non-technical
computer software courses
· Personal
self improvement
· Service
club meetings or activities
· Equipment
demonstrations or trade show displays
· Topics
not relevant to licensee’s profession
· Enrollment
without attendance at courses, seminars, etc.
· Repetitive
attendance or teaching of the same course
· Attending
committee meetings or general business meetings of any organization
· Conversational
language courses for personal use
· Tours
of buildings, structures, schools, museums and such unless there is a clear
objective to maintain and strengthen competency in
technical field
CONVERSION TO PDH
1. One semester hour of college
credit...................…….. 30 PDH
2. One-quarter hour of college
credit..................……..…..20 PDH
3. One continuing education unit
(CEU)............…………..10 PDH
4. One nominal contact hour of acceptable
professional….1 PDH development education in course work, seminars or
professional or technical presentations made at
meetings, conventions or conferences