New Year update from our President
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Dear <<Prefered Name>>
Welcome to the January edition of Connect. I wish you a very happy and prosperous New Year.
As your President, I look forward hugely to some planned forthcoming initiatives and the possibilities that await us all in 2020 as members of our creative engineering community.
Engineers Week, which showcases the exciting world of contemporary engineering to second-level students and younger girls and boys, begins nationwide on Saturday 29 February and we have an article in this month’s Connect about how you and your organisation can get involved. In addition, our National Conference will be on Thursday 23 April at Dublin City University. The theme for our conference this year is Engineering Climate Action: Solutions to combat climate change in Ireland and there is a terrific early bird rate for members now available. (See below).
Our Engineering Barometer report on the profession will be published in early March and with the General Election coming up on 8 February, watch out for our series of recommendations to candidates which will be published very soon. 2020 will also see the development of our new organisational strategy and I look forward very much to collaborating with members and the executive at Clyde Road on this project. The Engineers Ireland's Salary Survey 2020 (click here) is underway right now and it also provides you with the opportunity to input to Engineers Ireland’s strategic planning. Your input to the survey, which is totally confidential, will be greatly valued and your views on the strategy can also be provided to your Council representative.
Activities with our Regional branches happen throughout the whole year and I look forward to meeting branch members up and down the country in the coming weeks. It will be a huge honour for me to deliver the Sir Bernard Crossland Lecture at Queen’s University Belfast on 18 February. This event is held in association with our Northern Region and is titled Switching on to the Energy Transition.
As a Chartered Engineer, I wish to highlight that 31 January is the first of two deadlines this year to apply for this Professional Title. A new podcast series is now available to inform engineers about the value of being chartered and the first podcast provides useful advice and guidance on the application form and our interview process. See below.
Finally, I look forward to meeting as many of you as possible at the Annual Ball on Friday 24 January. With best wishes
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Marguerite Sayers, Chartered Engineer
President of Engineers Ireland
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Chartered Engineer applications welcome by 31 January
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New Podcast to assist with application process
“Attaining Chartered Status has given me the confidence in my skills as an engineer and demonstrates to colleagues, employers and customers that I am a competent and experienced professional,” Gearóid Fitzgerald, Mechanical Engineer, finalist 2017 Chartered Engineer of the Year.
The Chartered Engineer title is the gold standard and is granted by Engineers Ireland to professional engineers who, through a rigorous review process, have shown their ability to apply their professional competence in the workplace.
Our members seek to achieve the registered professional title of Chartered Engineer in order to:
• Achieve the badge of excellence of the profession
• Establish a seal of approval by their peers for their knowledge and competence
• Include their Chartered Title on tender documents
• Potential to increase their salary - Chartered Engineers continue to earn more than non-titled engineers
• Have their standard recognised internationally, providing a competitive advantage
• Set a career path milestone
The next deadline for applications for a Chartered Title is Friday 31 January 2020. Our Membership Team will be delighted to speak to you if you are interested in applying. Please email membership@engineersireland.ie with any questions. Additionally, please listen to our brand-new podcast, the first of a series of three, where Chartered Engineers, Eimear Pepper, Philip Healy and Laura Woodbyrne (pictured) offer advice and guidance on the application form and on the interview.
Listen to the podcast (13 mins duration) here.
See also our website section here.
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As a member* of Engineers Ireland you are required to record your CPD (continuing professional development) on our portal My CPD and make your declaration for 2019 before the deadline of Friday 31 January 2020.
Our CPD Policy has been developed to support engineering excellence and the competence of our members.
My CPD allows you to demonstrate your investment in CPD to maintain and enhance your competence throughout your career.
If you haven’t done so already, log into My CPD and make your CPD declaration for 2019 – don’t wait until the last minute.
The My CPD Help Section is full of useful resources and FAQs which should answer any of your questions. *Retired members and student members are exempt from our CPD Policy.
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Selected course
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Achieving Durable Concrete,Seminar, Tuesday 11 February 2020.
This is a joint event with the Irish Concrete Society and will take place at 22 Clyde Road, Dublin 4.
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Still time to get involved in ENGINEERS WEEK
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Get involved in Engineers Week and positively showcase engineering as a rewarding and creative career choice in your community.
Fast approaching, Engineers Week will take place from Saturday 29 February – Friday 6 March and we are encouraging our members and their networks to get involved, register their activities and help make 2020 the best Engineers Week yet!
Registering your activities with us is very important, ensuring we can analyse the reach and impact of the week. Remember to register your events by 20 January to be an official partner and receive activity booklets to accompany your event. Register activities here.
Engineers Ireland’s STEPS team has worked hard to develop free support resources and materials. View the library of resources which includes an Activity Guide, Activity Pack, and Template Classroom Visit Presentations. View library of free resources here.
Engineers Week is brought to you by STEPS at Engineers Ireland and supported by SFI, the Department of Education and Skills and industry leaders, Arup, ESB, INTEL and TII.
To find out more information, please visit the website by clicking the link below
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Early bird rates now available for our National Conference 2020
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Engineering is one of the key industries that can truly address the impact of climate change on the planet and as an engineering community, we need to be front and centre of the call for action on climate change.
Our National Conference 2020 on the theme of Engineering Climate Action will take place on Thursday 23 April at Dublin City University, The Helix. A fantastic early bird rate for members is now available here.
Some confirmed speakers include Dr Morgan Bazilian from Colorado, on the geopolitics of the energy transition (globally), Mike Stenson, Head of Innovation with Kingspan, who are utilising recovered ocean plastics within their supply chain and Professor Brian Ó Gallachóir from MaREI and Climate Lab, (Cork). We will also have speakers from Irish Water, OPW (on coastal flood risk management), the EPA and speakers from the continent on this topic of coastal flood risk management and on driving sustainable communities within cities and towns (case studies).
Listen to Caroline Spillane, our Director General, speaking about the conference here
Our Conference will be an important forum for us to engage with our member-engineers, non-engineers, business leaders, students, policy makers and others, to highlight how engineers are leading the fight against climate change. The conference will aim to mobilise, educate and empower engineers across all sectors to be drivers of climate action in their own business, network and communities.
For more detail on speakers and on the limited early bird offer that commenced this week, see here.
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My Engineering life Q&A: Barry Hyland
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How to read the climate history of a bog
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News from our Community – coping with bush fires in Australia
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In addition to his role as member (and former Chair) of our Australia and New Zealand Branch, Darren McDonnell, BEng, is a volunteer with the Country Fire Authority (CFA) in Gippsland, Victoria, Australia. With the devastating bush fire season and associated emergency crisis happening in Victoria and New South Wales, we asked Darren to give an insight into this voluntary fire service.
I have been a member of the Country Fire Authority (CFA) for over five years. CFA is a volunteer firefighting organisation of over 50,000 volunteers and approx. 3,000 paid staff. We are based in over 2,000 stations all over Victoria from the Melbourne suburbs, in towns, to the bush. One of the great benefits of the CFA structure is its surge capacity. It can mobilise large numbers of volunteers, emergency vehicles and a management structure to respond to large scale bushfires.
I am a firefighter, the secretary, and the Community Engagement Officer of our local brigade. I have also recently completed my tanker driver training. I find an amazing sense of camaraderie within the organisation, and excellent support from the wider community. Although it can be a challenging role at times, the focus is on Safety First (to protect Life and Property, in that order). We train regularly and develop our skills.
This fire season is unprecedented given how long the fires have been burning, their size, and how long the fire season has yet to run. The fires have burnt an area bigger than the size of Ireland at this point. My biggest hope is that we can minimise the amount of new fires that start up so that we can focus on containing the existing ones until the autumn break. You can follow us on Facebook to learn more about our voluntary work – Nilma North Fire Brigade.
We welcome content from all our Sectors in this ‘News from our Community Section’. Please email connectnewsletter@engineersireland.ie.
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