WHAT IS THE CHAMBER OF ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGY?

The Chamber of Engineering Technology is a Voluntary Association recognized by the Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA). It is a multi disciplinary organization and membership is open to all the categories of ECSA registered persons.


Historically the Chamber in its very early formative years consisted mainly of only engineering technicians but with the introduction of the Engineering Act in the year 2000 membership on an individual basis was broadened to include Engineers, Technologists, Technicians and the Specified Scope categories.

 

The Chamber has, from the early years of the Boards of Control and subsequently the Engineering Council, nominated volunteers to serve on many of the ECSA committees. These include Council, Education, Registration and University of Technology Accreditation.

 

The Chamber is a multi disciplinary, non-political, voluntary association not for gain. It is one of the very few multi disciplinary engineering organisations in South Africa in which membership is open to all ECSA categories. It monitors engineering education and training standards and cares for the career interests of its members wherever possible. It validates Continuing Professional Development (CPD) courses as required by ECSA. The Chamber is proud of its wide involvement in engineering matters.

A BRIEF  HISTORY OF THE FORMATION OF THE CHAMBER AND THE ENGINEERING PROFESSION IN SOUTH AFRICA.

IN THE BEGINNING .

The first "liaison groups" of professional people were probably similar to the "guilds" established by the masons over a thousand years ago. The masons, being proud of their building skills, protected their members, set rules of conduct and penalties for offenders and generally kept the tricks of their trade secret from non-members.

 

This was followed by the formation of institutes or institutions, generally known as   the "Learned Societies". These were, and are, a formalised banding together of persons of similar interests often belonging to a particular discipline (Civil, Mechanical, etc.). They generally determine their own entry requirements, levels of education, training and may also set examinations for aspirant members.

 

South Africa followed the British model in establishing these cadres of engineering. Certain South African Institutes now are one hundred years old (Mechanical, Mining and Metallurgy etc). Up to 1968, Institutes were generally accepted as arbiters in disputes and their standards were accepted by employers as the measurement of qualifications.

 

In 1968 the Professional Engineers Act was implemented. This provided voluntary statutory recognition and registration for engineers in South Africa. Members of the engineering profession who did not hold an acceptable four-year university degree and three years of acceptable high level engineering experience were excluded. In the interests of public safety, regulations were introduced requiring that certain work could only be performed by registered Professional Engineers. Institutional membership now became a secondary consideration. This, of necessity, gave rise to the need for realignment of the statutory and voluntary branches of the engineering profession.

 

In 1976 the Federation of Societies of Professional Engineers (FSPE), through the Institution of Certificated and Electrical Engineers (ICMEE), invited all independent engineering technician bodies together to discuss amendments to the Professional Engineers Act. This resulted in the formation of the Interim Committee for Registration of Engineering Technicians (ICRET). By 1978 the amendments to the Act were published. The first Board of Control for Engineering Technicians (BOCET) was established on 14 November 1983.

 

In 1980 ICRET called a meeting to establish a permanent voluntary organisation to represent technicians. The Affiliation of Societies Representing Engineering Technicians (ASRET), a federal type body, was formed by unanimous vote of twenty societies.

 

Somewhat later the engineering technologists, having contributed significantly to the development of registration of the non-engineer cadres by way of ICRET, identified themselves as a separate cadre and followed the same route, which culminated in the first Board of Control for Engineering Technologists (BOCNOL). The driving force for the technologists was the voluntary representative body the South African Association of Registerable Engineering Technologists (SAARET).

 

The last category to apply for a Board of Control was the Certificated Engineers and, after some delays caused by other categories wishing to be included, held its first meeting on 18 November 1987.

 

At this stage there were more than 24 voluntary groupings of engineering persons and four statutory bodies, the South African Council for Professional Engineers (SACPE), BOCET, BOCNOL and the Board of Control for Certificated Engineers. Around 1984 the then Minister of Technology, Danie Steyn, had already expressed his concern that engineering, unlike the medical profession, legal profession and business community, had no visible means of communication with the government.

 

EARLY ATTEMPTS AT UNIFICATION.
 

At another meeting of all the role players, including ASRET, a committee was formed to shape up an umbrella-engineering organisation. Technicians and technologists were accepted as equal members along with engineers on this Interim Committee. After some four years the voluntary umbrella body the South African Engineering Association (Suid Afrikaanse Vereeniging van Ingenieurswese) (SAVI) was established. Sadly only Professional Engineer Institutes were recognised and the only representation engineering technicians had was via ASRET.

 

This fragmented statutory position ended in 1990. The S A Council for Professional Engineers and the various Control Boards were replaced on 13 July 1990 by the Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA), which covered engineers, technicians, technologists and certificated engineers.

This Act has been replaced by Act. No. 46 of 2000, Engineering Professions act, which became administratively effective on 28 August 2001.

 

Upon the formation of SAVI, its structure was such that it and ASRET became incompatible in that both were federal bodies i.e. not a body of individual members. In order to remain a member of SAVI, ASRET re-established itself as the Association of South African Registered Engineering Technicians (ASARET), which consisted of individual members.

 

The engineering groups, after protracted debate, could not bring themselves to further support SAVI, which effectively became defunct in 2000.

 THE CHAMBER OF ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGY (COET) FINALLY ESTABLISHED.


In 1993 it became apparent that ASARET was not doing enough for Registered Engineering Technician career interests because of a lack of funds, motivation and an old fashioned exclusive and restrictive constitution. A radical break with the past and old structure was proposed and agreed to by its members. ASARET, in conjunction with another with body with similar aspirations and which also welcomed all members of the engineering profession as members, namely the Institute for Engineering Technology (IVIT – Afrikaans abbreviation), amalgamated to form The Chamber of Engineering Technology late in 1994.

In essence the Chamber has been effectively active in engineering matters since 1984.  

 THE BENEFITS OF MEMBERSHIP.

 Some of the advantages of being a member are listed below:

  • Members are eligible for a substantial concession on their annual ECSA registration fee. The discount more than covers the Chambers annual fee. You then get two for the price of one plus a further saving.
  • The Chambers annual fees have, and continue to be, one of the lowest (if not the lowest) of all engineering associations recognised by ECSA.

·         Members receive one credit point per year in ECSA’s Continuing Professional Development (CPD) requirements.

  • Members are entitled to a discount on any CPD courses validated by the Chamber.
  • Members receive a regular newsletter by E Mail, which covers news about ECSA, engineering, training, general news of interest and issues affecting the profession. This includes items not generally found in the general or engineering press.
  • Members have access to the Chambers website which contains useful information on a variety of topics and also includes the E Newsletter.
  • The Chamber is an ECSA recognized Voluntary Association (VA) and thus is allowed to nominate registered persons to serve on ECSA Council and Committees.
  • As the Chamber has a number of members on various ECSA committees “representation” is gained and members viewpoints may be aired.
  • As an ECSA recognized Voluntary Association (VA) it is empowered to award validation of CPD courses by outside providers.
  • Validation of CPD courses by providers is done at reasonable and negotiated fees.
  • The Chamber is one of the very few multi disciplinary associations that has membership open to all ECSA registration categories (from Pr Eng to LMI).
  • All individual members (except students) have the same voting rights.

CONTACT DETAILS:-


Membership application forms etc may be obtained from:


THE CHAMBER OF ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGY

PO BOX 1269

FERNDALE

2160

Tel 062 585 7022
E Mail engineer@netactive.co.za

You may have to cut and paste or retype the E mail address as the click on option may not work here.

www.engineeringchamber.mirrorz.com

or www.engineeringchamber.yolasite.com

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