How to Become Professional Engineer!!

There are two ways to become a professional engineer in Malaysia:


i) Through BEM

• By sitting for their PAE (Professional Assessment Examination). In order to be able to sit for their PAE you MUST have a minimum of 3 years of working experience.

• Your 3 years of working experience ONLY STARTS counting after you have registered with the BEM.

• Eg. In the year 2009 you have been effectively working for 10 years but you have registered with the BEM only in 2008. That means you only have 1 year of working experience in their clock. Therefore, all fresh graduates please register with the BEM ASAP after your graduation. It is supposed to be illegal for you to work in the capacity of an engineer without a registration with the BEM.

• The second requirement before you can sit for their PAE is to complete 60 hours of BEM mandatory courses known as the PDP (Professional Development Programme). PS: My abbreviation for PDP may be wrong.

• Once you have sat and passed the PAE you will gain your P.Eng and hence, entitled to use the title Ir. (Eg. Ir. Dr. Jeffrey Han B.Eng(Hons), Phd (Mech), P.Eng)
  

ii) Through IEM

• By sitting for their PI (Professional Interview)

• Before even talking about the PI, a fresh graduate is encouraged to register with the IEM as a graduate engineer. Once you have registered with the IEM as a graduate engineer, you are entitled to the title Engr. As simple as that. (Eg. Engr. Dr. Jeffrey Han B.Eng(Hons), Phd (Mech), GM.I.E.M)

• Once you are a graduate member, you can then proceed on to become their corporate member which consists of the bulk of the IEM membership. Note: It is not mandatory to become a graduate member first before becoming a corporate member.

• In order to become a corporate member, you have to first sit for the PI. Note: The PAE by BEM is EXACTLY the same as the PI by IEM. In fact the PAE is run by the same people that organizes the PI.

• In order to be able to sit for the PI, applicants SHOULD have at least a minimum of 3 years of working experience. It will be virtually impossible to pass the PI if you have less than 3 years of working experience since you will most probably have insufficient materials to be put in your report.
  

Note: It is not necessary to become a graduate member first before you can sit for the PI and there is no IEM clock that counts your working experience. If you have been working for 10 years, you will then have 10 years of working experience as far as IEM is concerned.

• Once you have sat and passed the PI, you are entitled to use the title Engr. (Same title as the graduate engineer) (Eg. Engr. Dr. Jeffrey Han B.Eng(Hons), Phd (Mech), M.I.E.M)
  

Once you have your Engr. (M.I.E.M) you can then proceed to top up with the Ir (P.Eng) from BEM. There are two scenarios:

===> If you have not registered with the BEM, go register with them and wait three years before getting your P.Eng. You must also complete the
60 hours of BEM mandatory courses known as the PDP.

===> If you have registered with the BEM and have three years of woking experience according to their clock, you can get your P.Eng.
immediately. You must also complete the 60 hours of BEM mandatory courses known as the PDP.

Once scenario 1 and 2 are covered, you will have the privillege to use the titles:
Eg. Ir. Dr. Jeffrey Han B.Eng(Hons), Phd (Mech), P.Eng, M.I.E.M

===> Normally people will use Ir. only if they have both the Ir. and Engr.


Notes:
1) If you have to approve or/and submit layouts/designs to the approving authortity, P.Eng is mandatory. But if you are working in the manufacturing sector for instance, you can opt just for the M.I.E.M. Getting either/both the P.Eng or the M.I.E.M is a great personal satisfaction if you ask me and they look absolutely fabulous on your resume.

2) Once you get your P.Eng from BEM, you will have to renew your "license" every year in order to be able to continue to use the title Ir. Before you can renew your license, you must complete 40 hours (I may be wrong) of CPD (Continuous Professional Development) .

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