The International Register Of Professional Engineer (IntPE Register) aka EMF Professional Engineer Register

Introduction

The Engineers Mobility Forum (EMF) is the result of an agreement among the Washington Accord signatories to explore mutual recognition for experienced engineers. The Washington Accord, signed in 1989, recognizes substantial equivalence of engineering academic programmes accredited by each signatory organization.

The development of the International Register of Professional Engineers began in March 1996 when representatives of the engineering professional institutions from each of the signatories to the Washington Accord, together with observers nominated by the European Federation of National Engineering Associations (FEANI), met to discuss how to make this idea possible.

With the addition of observers from the Japan Consulting Engineers Association in January 1997, the Working Group completed its task and the EMF was formed later that year.

Further negotiations and the signing of an agreement resulted in the International Register of Professional Engineers being up in 2001 with Full Members opening Sections of the Register from early 2002.

The International Register of Professional Engineers is intended to provide a framework for recognition of experienced professional engineers by responsible bodies in each of the Member organisation’s economies. In particular, such bodies will be encouraged to use the Register as a secure benchmark for arrangements which provide mutual recognition or exemption and/or streamline access by professional engineers to licensing or registration in economies other than that in which they first gained recognition.

Background

At a meeting held in London in July 1998, the participants agreed to recommend that the organisation, which they represented, consider becoming signatories to a draft Agreement to “Establish and Maintain an International Register of Engineers.”

Following periods of consultation in each economy, and further discussion at meetings held in Sydney, Australia in November 1999 and Vancouver, Canada in June 2000, the participants agreed to amend the original Memorandum of Understanding to permit a wider range of organisations to become Members of the Engineers Mobility Forum. They further agreed that the revised Memorandum of Understanding should be submitted to the organisations which they represented, and to recommend to them to become signatories to the Agreement.

This Agreement to establish and maintain an EMF International Engineer Register is intended to provide a framework for the recognition of experienced professional engineers by responsible bodies in each of the signatory economies. In particular, such bodies will be encouraged to use the Register as a secure benchmark for arrangements by professional engineers to licensing or registration in economies other than that in which they first gained recognition.

Nothing in this Agreement is intended to limit the rights of any signatory organisations to conclude bilateral or multilateral agreement with any other organisations on different terms from those implied by the requirements for entry to the EMF International Engineer Register.

Purpose

The EMF International Register now known as the International Professional Engineer (IntPE) Register is essentially the same as the APEC Engineer Register. It is a benchmark register to include all economies of the world that share the same objectives. It was the initiative of Engineers Mobility Forum (EMF), originally mooted by member countries of the Washington Accord signatories. The Institution of Engineers, Malaysia signed as a signatory to the EMF Agreement on 25 June 2001 in South Africa . As at June 2011, the economies in the signatory are Australia, Canada, Hong Kong (China), Ireland, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, South Africa, United Kingdom, the United States of America, India, Singapore and Sri Lanka. Bangladesh and Pakistan were accepted as Provisional Member of EMF.

The purpose of the EMF Agreement is to establish and maintain an EMF International Register of Professional Engineers and this Agreement intends to provide a framework for the recognition of experienced professional engineers by responsible bodies in each of the signatory economy for Malaysia. The International Register of Professional is used as a secure benchmark for arrangements, which provide mutual recognition or exemption.

Early registration as an International Register of Professional Engineer will help your future practise in other signatory economies.

Engineers Mobility Forum (EMF)

As a result of an agreement by the Washington Accord signatories to explore mutual recognition for experiences engineers, representatives of the engineering profession in each of the signatories together with observers nominated by the European Federation of National Engineering Associations (FEANI), met in March 1996, and in January 1997 with the addition of observers from the Japan Consulting Engineer Association.

Participants in the meetings, having exchanged information on, and made a preliminary assessment of, their respective processes, policies and procedures for granting recognition to experienced engineers, concluded that these were sufficiently comparable to justify further examination. They agreed on the broad principles of a framework, which might enable progress towards removing artificial barriers to the free movement and practice of professional engineers amongst their countries. Agreement was reached on the principles and outline process by which the substantial equivalence in competence of experiences engineers could be established.

As a subsequent meeting on 29 October 1997, the Accord signatories agreed to establish a forum, to be known as the Engineers Mobility Forum (EMF). The EMF aims to:

  1. Develop, monitor, maintain and promote mutually acceptable standards and criteria for facilitating cross-border mobility of experiences engineers;
  2. Seek to gain a greater understanding of the existing barriers to mobility and to develop and promote strategies to help governments and licensing authorities manage these barriers in an effective and non-discriminatory manner;
  3. Encourage the relevant government and licensing authorities to adopt and implement mutual mobility procedures consistent with the standards and practices recommended by the signatories to such agreements as may be established by or through the EMF;
  4. Identify, and encourage the implementation of best practice for the preparation and assessment of engineers intending to practice at professional level; and
  5. Continue mutual monitoring and information exchange by whatever means are considered most appropriate, including;
  • regular communication and sharing of information concerning assessment procedures, criteria, systems, manuals, publications and list of recognised practitioners;
  • invitations to observe the operation of the procedures of other participants; and
  • invitations to observe meetings of any boards and/or commissions responsible for implementing key aspects of these procedures, and relevant meetings of the governing bodies of the participants.

Only Member of the Engineers Mobility Forum (EMF) may become signatories to this Agreement and such Members will be required, as soon as reasonably practicable after exercising that option, to nominate a representative to serve on the International Register Coordinating Committee.

The Coordinating Committee will invite each Member, which has not signed this Agreement, and each Provisional Member, to nominate a non-voting representative to serve on the Coordinating Committee. These representatives will not be entitled to vote on any issue, or participate in the debate on the initial or continued authorisation of a signatory organisation to establish and maintain a section of the International Register of Professional Engineers.

International Professional Engineer

It is a benchmark register to include all economies of the world that share the same objectives. It was the initiative of Engineer Mobility Forum (EMF), originally mooted by member of Washington Accord countries. The other ten economies in the signatory back then are Australia, Canada, Hong Kong (China), Ireland, Japan, Korea, [not counting Malaysia], New Zealand, South Africa, United Kingdom and the United States of America.

As at June 2011, fourteen member economies including Malaysia have been approved to operate an APEC Engineer Register in each of the economies. The other economies are Australia, Canada, Hong Kong (China), Indonesia, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Philippines, Thailand, United States of America, Chinese Taipei, Russia and Singapore. More countries will join the register and the economy.

The signatories agreed to create and maintain a decentralised EMF International Engineer and to grant entry to that Register only to those practitioners who can demonstrate that they have:

  1. Reached an overall level of academic achievement at the point of entry to the register in question which is substantial equivalent to that of a graduate holding an engineering degree accredited by an organisation holding full membership of, and acting in accordance with the terms of, Washington Accord; and
  2. Been assessed within their own economy as eligible for independent practice; and
  3. Gained a minimum seven (7) years practical experience since graduation; and
  4. Spent at least two (2) years in responsible charge of significant engineering work; and
  5. Maintained their continuing professional development at a satisfactory level.

The Full Members agree to create and maintain a decentralized International Register of Professional Engineers and to grant entry to that Register only to those practitioners who satisfy the requirement of registration.

A competency-based assessment grows in effectiveness as an alternate approach to time-specification as described above, Assessment Statement from Signatories that include an alternative route of this kind may be considered for approval by the International Register Coordinating Committee.

Applicants must agree to be bound by the codes of professional conduct established and enforced by each economy within which they are practicing. Such codes normally require that practitioners place the health, safety and welfare of the community above their responsibilities to clients and colleagues, practice only within their fields of competence, and advise their clients if and when additional professional assistance becomes necessary to implement a programme or project.

Applicants must further agree to be held individually accountable for their actions, both through requirements imposed by the licensing or registering authorities in the economies in which they practise and through legal processes. By applying for registration, applicants authorise the signatory organisations to exchange such personal and other data as may be necessary to ensure that the application of a sanction or penalty in any economy in which an engineer is registered or licensed to practice will be taken into account in deciding upon their continued designation and will be appropriately recorded in the Register.

Title

The International Registration confers the post-nominal title IntPE (MY) for registrants in the Malaysia Section, which is an abbreviation of International Professional Engineer. International Registrants may use this title as long as they remain on the International Register, which is subject to periodic confirmation of Continuing Professional Development submitted to the IntPE member through which one is registered.

Use of the IntPE title may be restricted in some countries for legal reasons. International Registrants are required to comply with domestic laws and should use the title in accordance with any restrictions or requirements to which nationals of the host country must submit.

Effectiveness Of The Register

The signatories note that such registration will only be effective if the responsible bodies in the relevant economies accept the validity of the procedures and criteria through which substantial equivalence is established, and streamline the procedures for granting rights of practice in their economies to registrants applying through this mechanism.

The signatories will therefore use their best endeavours to ensure that responsible bodies in the economies within which they have standing to use this Agreement as a foundation upon which to enter multilateral agreements, or to conclude bilateral agreements, providing for such streamlined procedures to be adopted on a reciprocal basis in dealing with applications by registrants based in the economies concerned.

Signatories of the EMF Agreement undertake to implement an interim EMF International Register of Professional Engineer now known as IntPE in their own jurisdictions as the first step of implementing the Agreement.

Upon the establishment of registers in each of the signatory of the EMF Agreement, the IntPE (pka EMF) Co-ordinating Committee shall liaise with the Monitoring Committees of each signatory economy on the next steps moving towards assisting IntPE Engineers registered in each signatory economy to practise in other signatory economies.

For a list of the members, please click here.