Professional Engineers in Japan
Continuing Professional Development (CPD)
An act to amend part of
the Professional Engineer Law was promulgated on April 26, 2000. The
Professional Engineer Law of the latest amendments clearly stipulates that every
professional engineer shall have sufficient knowledge of the professional ethics
and shall continue, after the acquisition of the qualification of professional
engineer, professional development as one of his or her obligations so as to
improve the competence of the professional engineer.
In response to the
amendment, the Institution of Professional Engineers,Japan implemented CPD and
defined the purpose of CPD as follows :
Every professional engineer shall
continue his or her professional development with an emphasis being place on the
following points:
- Awareness of engineering ethics
- Contribution to advance in science and technology
- Adaptation to changes in social environments
- Improvement of ability of judgement as professional engineer
Expected CPD hours
It is desirable for each professional
engineer to carry out CPD programs 50 hours/annually, 150 hours within three
years (in case of APEC engineer, 250 hours within 5five years). (CPD hours are
obtainable by multiplying the number of hours actually spent for CPD by a weight
factor).
Types of CPD programs for Professional Engineers
Many types of CPD programs are conceivable, and every professional engineer
should voluntarily choose the programs most suitable to the engineer's
CPD and work on the chosen programs. However, in the case of choosing any
CPD programs, it is desirable for each professional engineer to select
such CPD programs, each of which can be, as much as possible, recognized
as a CPD achievement by any third party. From this viewpoint, the following
items will be included in CPD programs.
(1) Participation in training courses, lectures, technical
meetings, symposiums, etc. to be officially held by the IPEJ, related
engineering institutions and societies (including academic bodies and non-profit
foundations), universities, private bodies and private enterprises.
(2)
Presentation of papers
(3) In-house training and OJT
(4) Technical
Guidance
(5) Practical experience in industrial sector
(6)
Others
Subjects of CPD programs for Professional Engineers
A : General
subjects
(1) Ethics
(2) Environment
(3) Safety
(4) Technical
trend
(5) Social trends
(6) Industrial and economic trends
(7) Trends
of codes and standards
(8) Management systems
(9) Contract
(10)
International exchange
(11) Others
B : Technical subjects
(1) Latest
techniques in each engineering discipline
(2) Trend of science and
technology
(3) Applicable laws
(4) Accident case study
(5) Others
Flyer on CPD (Japanese) pdf
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