New Post Graduate Educational Program Certifying Precision Engineers
The European Society for Precision Engineering & Nanotechnology (euspen) has been at the heart of the dynamic micro and nanomanufacturing sector for a number of years, and today announced that it is creating a new post graduate educational program aimed at the certification of precision engineers, which will be recognised throughout Europe.
The European Certified mainly post Bsc and MsC Precision Engineering Course Program (ECPECP), will be branded the euspen ECP2 certification.
David Billington, euspen Executive Director explains the context of the certification program. “One of the objectives of euspen is to improve the level of knowledge and cooperation in the field of precision engineering within Europe. The ECP2 program aims to promote post- academic technical education. Based on the demands in the market, euspen has selected and qualified the best post-academic courses for precision engineers. The ECP2 program reflects the demand for multidisciplinary system thinking, excellent cooperative skills, and in- depth knowledge of relevant disciplines. This combined investment in education aims to create a common way of working and to facilitate networking among precision engineers.”
The program will consist of a range of short courses aimed at degree qualified precision engineers with a minimum of two years’ work experience.
Each course will be graded and allocated a point’s score according to its difficulty and topic relevance with points being awarded to the scholar upon the successful completion of each course. Once a predefined number of points have been reached within a five year period and across a mix of subject topics, then the scholar will be awarded a certificate that will be recognised throughout Europe and the scholars details will be entered onto a centralised European register.
The intention is to provide a structured approach to continuing professional development within precision engineering, and allows qualified engineers an industry recognised qualification which will promote greater portability of their skill-set within Europe. Participants of the approved short courses will firstly know that course delivery partners across all regions will provide the same standard for training and also that in completing all required courses to be certified as an ECP2 engineer means that they have received a balanced and technically appropriate level of training.
euspen plan to implement the ECP2 program in Germany, the Netherlands, and the U.K., attracting 2,500 scholars. Once the program has been successfully introduced in the initial three launch territories, additional European countries will be added to the program to increase its scope and effectiveness.
euspen council will nominate key members to form an Advisory Board which will be tasked with the future direction and overall strategy of the program. They will have direct input from the Education Committee and the Regional Committees.
Billington continues. “The euspen Education Committee will have the role and responsibility of overseeing the ECP2 program content. Suitable short courses will be recommended by the regional Certification Partners and these courses will be assessed for their applicability. Once a course has been approved each course will be graded into three main categories and points awarded for the completion of each course — Foundation (Basic), Advanced (Deepening), Specific (Focussed). Once a course has been selected to be part of the overall program it will remain within the program for a minimum of three years dependant on regular audits which will be performed by the Education Committee. The Education Committee will be assisted in their role by euspen HQ with the maintenance of the central database and strategic marketing activities.”
In addition to traditional face-to-face courses, there will be a range of online courses which will complement the mix of subjects available. These online courses will be branded as a euspen product or delivered directly via the course content provider.
The intention of the ECP2 program is to provide a structured approach to continuous professional development within precision engineering. It fits perfectly with euspen’s overall mission to advance the arts, sciences and technology of precision engineering, micro engineering, and nanotechnology, and promote its dissemination through education and training and facilitate its exploitation by science and industry.
