ASCE adopts five-year plan for more robust board-certification program |
Board certification is among the best ways for civil engineers to demonstrate their expertise in a specialty area. A new five-year strategic and business plan for ASCE’s Civil Engineering Certification program will help more civil engineers do just that.
At its quarterly meeting, held in conjunction with the ASCE 2022 Convention Oct. 22-23 in Anaheim, California, the ASCE Board of Direction voted to approve the proposed Civil Engineering Certification strategic plan and appointed April Lander, a Society director representing Region 10, to also sit on the CEC board.
The new plan envisions expanding board certification to additional specialties and considering how certification could also serve early career professionals and the global civil engineering community.
“When surveyed over recent years, younger members have indicated that they are looking for leadership development and validation of expertise,” said ASCE 2022 President Dennis Truax. “The proposed extensions of the civil engineering certification program embrace both.”
ASCE established Civil Engineering Certification Inc. in 2004, and CEC now offers six board certifications –coastal engineering, geotechnical engineering, navigation engineering, ocean engineering, port engineering, and water resources engineering.
CEC plans to expand its offerings into other civil engineering disciplines and subdisciplines while also increasing the number of board-certified engineers.
It’s not a shift that was taken lightly. The ASCE Board of Direction started a process in 2018 of assessing and potentially revising the program. That led to creating the Task Committee to Resolve Certification, whose report to the board this spring preceded the new CEC strategic plan.
“ASCE has spent most of the year holding workshops and conducting interviews with stakeholders, employers, clients, and academicians in an effort to define market needs and the appropriate value proposition for the new CEC strategic plan,” Truax said. “We’re excited to watch this program grow and further support our industry and our workforce.”
