Canon #3

Engineers shall continue their professional development throughout their careers, and shall encourage and provide opportunities for the professional and ethical development of those engineers under their supervision.

Our Interpretation of Canon 3 is as follows:

1. Engineers should keep current in their specialty fields by engaging in professional practice, participating in continuing education courses, reading in the technical literature, and attending professional meetings and seminars.

In a field as technically complex as engineering, new discoveries and changes in practice occur frequently. In order to stay current, you must take steps that go beyond your job, such as participating in professional societies, attending continuing education courses, and reading professional publications. Some states and territories have a continuing education requirement, with a system of points or credit hours to be completed each year, as part of the professional engineer’s licensing process. Other states are less specific, but still expect their licensees to keep up with changes is the field. It is your responsibility to manage your life-long professional education. Further information will be provided in the PPC module on Life-long Learning.

Let’s examine the implications of various ethical models for this Canon. A Malpractice Model implies that you must meet the legal requirements for continued licensure, whatever those criteria are in your state. In some jurisdictions this may mean attendance at a number of continuing education courses or professional meetings to obtain the required credits. A Good Works Model makes it your responsibility to engage in life-long learning and to judge for yourself whether your professional skills are adequate.

The professional-growth activities you choose will depend on your employment situation. If you are in a major urban area, you will have many options through a large professional network and through nearby educational institutions. In other circumstances, it may be more difficult for you to participate in organized continuing education and professional development.

Consider the following:
Which of these activities contribute to your professional development? In how many must you participate and how active must you be to stay up-to-date in your profession?

• Maintaining your annual membership in ASME, either by asking your employer to pay for your annual dues and subscriptions or by paying for them yourself
• Reading the monthly ASME publication Mechanical Engineering
• Skimming the titles in one of the ASME Transactions journals
• Attending the annual ASME national professional meeting (actually attending some technical sessions and professional discussions, not just playing in the golf tournament and taking the city tour)
• Participating in local ASME chapter activities
• Serving on professional subcommittees and working groups that develop codes and standards
• Registering and attending a continuing education course offered by a professional society or educational institution
• Developing a network of fellow professionals with whom you can discuss technical issues

It is important that you continue your education, whether formally or informally, so that you remain aware of current practices in your profession. You can do this by reading on your own, attending presentations, or simply networking with other professionals.

Under this Canon, engineering managers are expected to encourage the professional growth and service of their subordinates. This could mean paying for their continuing education, allowing them to attend professional meetings, or giving employees paid time off to participate in professional activities, to make public presentations, to hold office or to do committee work in local, regional, or national professional organizations. Such activities may result in a loss of local productivity while the employee is not working on his or her normal assignments, but they also increase the employer’s visibility, support the employee’s growth, and further the engineering profession.

Although support for professional development is not explicitly required in the Malpractice Model, a Good Works Model would argue that such support brings benefits both to the engineering profession and to society.