Engineering learned profession

Preamble. Engineering is an important and learned profession. The members of the profession recognize that their work has a direct and vital impact on the quality of life for all people. Accordingly, the services provided by engineers require honesty, safety and welfare. In the practice of their profession, engineers must perform under a standard of professional behavior which requires adherence to the highest principles of ethical conduct on behalf of the public, clients, employers and the profession. 

It is often stated that engineers are members of a learned profession, and a number of authors have tried to characterize the attributes of a profession. Many of these use Greenwood s 1957 five attributes of a profession as a starting point (Greenwood, 1957) ... 

Engineering is an important and learned profession. As members of this profession, engi-... 

To establish engineering practice as a true learned profession, similar in rigor, intellectual breadth, preparation, stature, and influence to law and medicine, with extensive post-graduate education and a culture more characteristic of professional guilds than corporate employees. 

T. Douglas Brown, Your Learned Profession, Mechanical Engineering 85, no. 3 (April 1963) 42-43. 

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This imbalance between science and engineering must be tackled at the undergraduate level, at least for those who aspire to be leaders in their profession. It is important at the earliest stage to introduce current opportunities and unsolved problems, rather than to concentrate on well tried and tested analyses that relate to old problems and now-standard design methods. It is simply not practicable to train engineers in all the standard methods that will be expected of them during a 20- to 40-year career they will inevitably have to learn on the job as their tasks alter. 

Scientific, engineering, or learned. The purpose is to advance the body of knowledge in the field and keep members updated on trends and developments in the respective profession or trade. Examples are the American Pharmacist Association (APhA) or the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy. 

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