B.C. engineers vote not to accept mandatory continuing education

In the CCE news item of October 13, “B.C. engineers asked to make professional development compulsory,” we incorrectly said that the members of the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of B.C. (APEGBC) were being asked to ratify a bylaw on at their annual meeting to be held October 17.

In fact, APEGBC members have already been asked to vote by electronic ballot and have chosen not to ratify the bylaw making professional development activities compulsory.

This decision means that practising engineers in B.C. will not have to undertake a minumum of 30 hours a year on professional development activities.  Instead, the members will continue to be asked to voluntarily report their continuing professional development hours.  In 2008, 40% reported participating in such activities.

The bylaw would have needed to be ratified by two-thirds of the APEGBC voting members.