Lessons · Engineering · the licence many engineers never need, and why that is not about you
Most engineers are not licensed, and the reason has nothing to do with them
Nearly every jurisdiction recognises some form of industrial exemption: an engineer employed by a manufacturer, a utility or a public agency, whose engineering work is incidental to that employer's own products and is not offered to the public, can generally work unlicensed, with the employer carrying the liability instead of a sealed drawing.
Hone is a place to practise a career, one idea a day. This is one of its lessons, written out in full and free to read without an account.
In beta. This lesson was written for Hone and has not yet been checked by a licensed engineer. Practice material, not professional advice. What that means.
What it is for
It explains something a beginner finds confusing and draws the wrong lesson from, which is that most of the engineers they meet are not licensed. The wrong lesson is that the licence does not matter. The exemption is not a property of you: it belongs to your employer's situation, and it ends the day you move to a firm that offers services to the public, or decide to consult on your own account. Somebody who relied on it then finds a licence-shaped hole at the exact moment they wanted to work for themselves, and the years of qualifying experience they never recorded are the part that cannot be recovered quickly.
How to think about it
Find out whether you are working under an exemption rather than assuming either way, and ask the three things it turns on: what kind of employer this is, whether the engineering is incidental to what they sell, and whether services are offered to the public. Then decide whether you want the option of leaving. If you might, record experience as though you intend to license, because that is the cheap version of keeping the door open. Boards set these rules and change them, so any figure you plan around has to come from your own board's page rather than from here or from somebody who qualified in a different state or a different year.
Worked example
The exemption covers employees of certain employersManufacturers, utilities and public agencies are the usual categories.
The work has to be incidental to what the employer sellsIt is about their own products, not services sold to others.
And not offered to the publicWhich is the condition that ends it when you go independent.
The employer carries the liability insteadThat is what stands in place of a sealed drawing.
So it is their exemption, not yoursIt does not travel with you when you leave.
Your turn
Say whose situation the industrial exemption actually depends on.
The exemption belongs to your , not to you
Solve one, graded on the server
The trap
Concluding from the unlicensed engineers around you that the licence does not matter. They are covered by their employer's exemption, and you are covered by it only for as long as you work there.
Now you try
Next in Engineering
- What the licence actually lets you do, which is take responsibility in writingwhat the licence actually lets you do
- The degree, and the accreditation that quietly changes how many years you owethe degree, and the accreditation that changes the years
- The first examination, and why it is sat while you are still a studentthe first examination, and why it is sat early