IES Partner Gives Speech Supporting Structural Engineering Licensure
On 10/27/17, IES partner, Justice Edge, PE, gave a speech to the attendees at the state conference in Corpus Christi for the Structural Engineers Association of Texas (SEAoT). Mr. Edge spoke about the current state of licensure examination and that the two levels of structural engineering examination (previously offered separately) were combined (in 2013) into a single, two-day examination that has a 25% pass rate. It is the only engineering licensing examination that takes two days and is not entirely multiple choice. Mr. Edge spoke about the Texas Board of Professional Engineers (TBPE) allowing an engineer to take any engineering discipline’s exam to obtain licensure but allowing the engineer to practice in the engineering discipline for which that engineer believes himself/herself competent. Mr. Edge spoke of the prevalence for young structural engineers to fear their ability to pass the two-day structural exam and opt for the one-day civil exam instead. For those engineers that never continue on to take the two-day structural exam, Mr. Edge posed the question, “How are those engineers determining themselves to be competent enough to sign and seal significant building projects but were never confident enough to return and take the exam appropriate for testing their ability to do so.” Since 2013, IES has had seven of its engineers-in-training pass the two-day structural exam.