Routes to professional status in engineering

Last November the thirteen chartered engineering insitutions (see appendix), representing a total membership of approximately a quarter of a million, became a single chartered body under the Council of Engineering Institutions. This was the culmination of a great deal of effort by a number of members of the constituent bodies (and none but the most backward looking individual should see anything but good in such an amalgamation). Certainly the public image of the professional engineer should improve. There are, however, some attendant difficulties, especially in the education and training of the aspiring professional engineer.