12 Dec 2019

The Importance of Responsible Licensure: Why Continuing Education is Important in Engineering

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The Importance of Continuing Education for Engineers

There are several reasons why taking engineering courses is beneficial.

Helps Your Career

If you’re just starting out in your engineering career, the higher degree you have, the better job you’re likely to get hired for. And it also usually equates to earning a higher income.

And considering that the engineering community is about to face a shortage of employees since many are nearing retirement age, now is a great time to show that you can easily fill their shoes.

If you’re a more seasoned professional, engineering continuing education can also help you receive promotions, stay relevant, and earn more money.

Keeps You Up-to-Date on New Technology

Engineering is facing a lot of new changes in the next few years. In order to stay relevant, you must upgrade your existing skills and learn new ones.

This will help you collaborate with any new technologies you’ll have to adopt in your job such as:

Augmented Reality (AR)
Virtual Reality (VR)
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Additive Manufacturing (AM)

These disruptive technologies are poised to dominate the industry.

Informs You of Changes in Ethics Rulings

Not adhering to the code of ethics in engineering can land you in hot water. And get you fired.

It’s important that you stay current with the latest changes in ethics rulings so you know how to conduct yourself properly. Here are just a few rules of ethics engineers are expected to observe:

Prejudice in the Workplace

All employees must respect one another in the workplace regards to gender identity, race or religion.

Bullying or other acts of prejudice and/or hostility are no longer tolerated.

Quality Assurance

A quality assurance engineer must ensure that all safety measures are in place before items are shipped.

Knowingly shipping products that are potentially defective is unacceptable. Also, any signs of error in the protocol must be reported immediately.

Taking Credit for Others Work

It’s never okay to take credit for any work that isn’t yours. It’s also unacceptable to use false pretenses to obtain a job or tenure.

You also can violate copyright laws by reusing code that’s the intellectual property of another company.

Adhering to New Legal Requirements

Engineers and engineering managers need to study and learn the laws that directly affect their work. Doing so helps you with the following:

Avoid potential lawsuits
Protects your work
Stay compliant with the latest governmental ordinances
Follow regulations
Negotiate contracts

Knowing the legal requirements also helps protect you if you do run into trouble because you’ll know when to contact a lawyer.

Types of Law You Need to Know

There are certain areas of the law you should know such as:

Contract laws
Intellectual property laws
Tort laws

You should also be aware of the latest laws that affect the workplace, especially if you’re an engineering manager or hope to become one.

Keeping Everyone Safe

The safety and welfare of both employees and the public at large are incredibly important. Failure to learn and implement safety procedures can lead to potential disasters.

By taking engineering safety courses, you’ll learn how to create life-critical systems to ensure everyone stays safe even if pieces fail. You’ll know how to implement safety prevention procedures and how to react if an accident does happen.

You’ll also learn how to identify and fix safety risks that can help save lives and money.

Keeps You Interested

It’s important to keep learning and growing in your engineering career. Otherwise, it can become dull.

Learning new things opens you up to new possibilities, skill areas, and knowledge.

Taking courses helps you make a more meaningful contribution to your team. You’ll become more effective in the workplace while moving you into new positions where you can manage, lead, influence, mentor, and coach others.

Continuing Education is Also Helpful for Employers

Your employer wants you to continue your education because it benefits the entire company in several ways such as:

Improved Employee Performance

Acquiring new skills helps boost productivity and can even lead to new innovative ideas. It also builds an employee’s level of confidence as they gain a stronger understanding of the industry they work in.

It’s also a great way to address any employee weaknesses so each member is as strong as the next. Teams then share a similar set of skills and knowledge.

Learning new skills helps encourage teamwork. Since everyone is trained to have the same skills, if needed, one employee can take over for another.

Boosts Job Satisfaction and Productivity Levels

Education also helps build job satisfaction. Employees begin to feel valued which leads to increased productivity in the workplace.

That often leads to a company becoming a leader and strong competitor in its industry.

What You Need to Know About Continuing Education in Your State

It’s important to find out what your state’s requirements are regarding which courses can count. You should also investigate what topics need to be covered and how many continuing education courses (CEs) you’ll need to renew your license.

Also, if you hold multiple licenses or need to get licensed in another state, you’ll need to learn what those requirements are as well.