Back in early November the Engineering Board made their draft changes to the Engineering Act public. Among these, was that the term “Engineer” would be completely deleted and replaced with “engineering services”. Understandable the latter is a more generic term referring to a vast number of engineering practices and disciplines. Even, the term “profession of engineer” was replaced by “profession of engineering” which refers to “reserved activities” that imply the certification of any service of a “mechanical or electrical nature”.

Reactions by the industry and academics

These proposed changes to the act were condemned by the Chamber of Commerce, Chamber of Engineers, the University Engineering Students Association (UESA) and The Malta Association of Professional Engineers (MAPE).

MAPE condemned these changes claiming the reduction of “Profession of Engineer” to just certification. In reality, certification is just 10% of an engineer’s work, UESA clarified. They continued that the change outright disrespects the work of engineers by limiting engineers’ work to what was defined as “reserved activities”.

The Chamber of Engineers compared this change to that of re-imagining a lawyer as ‘legal services’ or a doctor as ‘medical services’. The main concern of the Malta Chamber was that broadening the term would lead to unqualified people to act as professionals. In return the quality of services provided by the local engineering industry may greatly suffer. Thereby the change may also imply health and safety related risks.

Looking forward…

The Chamber of Engineers agreed that “the Engineering Profession Act needs to be updated to address the challenges within the local and international market … [to] make the profession more relevant to today’s needs of the country.” The general consensus was that the best service should be provided to the industry and the public. However, there needs to be consultation with the professionals in the industry to properly update it in everyone’s best interest.

As of recently the Chamber of Engineers has been discussing with the Bboard to extend the deadline and to continue discussion regarding the changes in the Act.

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