Societal Protection

Global Professional Recognition of the Fire Protection …

SFPE member only webinar presented by Chris Jelenewicz, P.E., on October 8, 2014

Currently, fire protection engineering or fire safety engineering is practiced throughout the world. At the same time, the qualifications for those who practice fire protection engineering are not consistent between countries. For example, the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom have elaborate licensure/registration systems that establish competence as an engineer. While other countries do not have a means to establish competence.

Without an effective licensure system there is no way to protect the public’s health, safety and welfare from incompetent engineering. Establishing competence in any profession is sometimes defined as a “three legged chair” – Education, Experience and Evaluation. This presentation will focus on how these legs are used to evaluate competence in the global engineering community.

The presentation will focus on how educational programs in fire protection are growing throughout the global community. It will focus on the accreditation programs for these higher education programs are used to evaluate higher education programs. It will also discuss how the SFPE published Model Curriculum Content documents that define Bachelors of Science and Masters of Science programs for fire protection engineering.

Additionally, part of this presentation will be devoted to discussing how competence-based assessment techniques are currently being used to establish minimal competence for fire protection engineers. Specifically, the discussion will focus on how the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) Exams and the Principles and Practice of Engineering Exams (PE) are used to define minimal competence for fire protection engineers. The discussion will focus on how the specifications for these exams are developed and describe the topics that are offered on these exams. Additionally, there will be a discussion on how countries outside the United States are now offering the FE and PE exams.

Finally, the presentation will focus on how SFPE is working with other countries throughout the world to develop a needs assessment for the global professional recognition of fire safety engineers.