As part of PSPE’s role in advancing the profession, several years ago PSPE spearheaded the legislation that updated the professional engineers’ registration law to require continuing education for license renewal. As that bill advanced, PSPE surveyed professional engineers to determine their preferences in obtaining continuing education, as PSPE felt a responsibility to assist engineers in complying with the new requirement.
While the number one and two preferences were technical societies and in-house seminars, a large number of members were looking for other alternatives. PSPE developed a strategy to provide those opportunities. Quality was the key factor in choosing topics and speakers and to this day continues to be a hallmark of PSPE offerings.
For those engineers looking for a hour or two at a time spread over time, our local chapters have fulfilled that role with dinner/lunch meetings offering a PDH or two at a time in a pleasant atmosphere. Check your local chapter for details (contact information for your local chapter officers is on the PSPE web site).
For those who wished to do things a day or two at a time, PSPE instituted a “mini-conference” series around the state. These conferences, supplementing our annual conference, typically offered multiple tracks for a day or two with six PDHs per day. Plans for the annual conference in the fall include two full days of seminars (6 hours per day) and four separate tracks covering several different practice specialties, stay tuned for the details.
Understanding that many of our members are also licensed in New York or New Jersey, PSPE has also taken steps to have our seminars accepted in those states in addition to Pennsylvania.
For the procrastinators PSPE offered a “boot camp” the summer preceding the license renewal date. Several tracks of offerings over a four day period allowed one meeting awarding the full 24 credits required for license renewal, conveniently scheduled a couple of months before the deadline.
For the modern folk who want to do everything on-line, PSPE entered into an agreement with a large provider of excellent on-line PDHs, Red Vector. Just go to the link on the PSPE web page to the Red Vector site to qualify for your PSPE discount. NSPE also offers members 15 PDHs for free on their web site, but be careful as Pennsylvania does not accept “practice management” PDHs, which are some of the NSPE offerings. The ethics offerings should be OK, though.
Speaking of discounts, members get substantial discounts on all the PSPE seminars and many of our local chapters follow the same blueprint. NSPE online offerings are also offered at a discount to members, or even free in some cases. Red Vector also offers a discount to PSPE members. In fact, the savings over the period of a couple years can be enough to cover your state dues. All the records for PSPE offerings are kept at PSPE headquarters in Harrisburg. If you’ve lost a certificate or need a copy of the attendance sign-in sheet for an audit, just call our friendly staff. Another awesome membership benefit…
