Inspecting engineer succession planning – plain sailing or choppy waters? Available to Purchase

The underlying concern within the community of supervising and inspecting panel engineers in the United Kingdom of declining numbers on the more senior inspecting panels, led to the establishment of a working group sanctioned by the ICE Reservoirs Committee, to investigate whether this was a real issue, and if so, the possible causes and suggested solutions for further discussion. Building on earlier work which presented the declared retirement ambitions of the inspecting engineer (IE) panel members, the authors canvassed the opinions of all members of the supervising engineers (SEs) panel, and their aspirations to progress to inspecting panels. The results provide a snapshot of hard data on the likely progression of SEs to IE panels, and confirm a gradual decline in predicted numbers of inspecting engineers to a level that may not be sustainable. The results of the survey are presented here along with discussion on conclusions that may be drawn and some suggested mitigation actions for consideration and further debate by the profession.