Training and Certification
Domain 3: Training and Certification
This domain tests how pre-registration training is structured, documented and certified. It distinguishes academic study, industrial training and supervised professional experience.
Core rules
- Engineering education includes supervised industrial training, commonly through SIWES for students in approved programmes. Training must be relevant, logged and signed by the approved supervisor.
- Post-qualification training is structured: a trainee works under a registered practitioner, keeps a logbook or portfolio, and is assessed on technical competence, communication, ethics, safety and judgment.
- Certification follows evidence, not time served alone. A candidate must show accredited qualification, completed training records, and success in the required competence assessment or interview for the category.
- Mentors must be registered in the relevant category and must actually supervise; a signature from someone who cannot verify the work is weak evidence.
- Training records should be contemporaneous, specific and traceable to projects, drawings, calculations, site inspections or maintenance tasks.
Worked example
A technologist candidate submits a logbook claiming 18 months of experience. Twelve months are signed by a registered engineer, but six months are summarised in one paragraph and signed by a friend who is not registered. Reasoning: the 12 supervised months may count if tasks are specific and verified; the six-month block fails because the supervisor is not registered and the record is not contemporaneous. The panel may defer certification until the deficit is covered.
Traps
- Counting any employment as supervised training.
- Backfilling a logbook at the end without project evidence.
- Accepting a supervisor from an unrelated category.
- Confusing an academic certificate with professional certification.
- Assuming SIWES alone satisfies post-qualification training.