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NCEES has released a new Speaker’s Kit, with separate versions for engineers and surveyors, to help promote the benefits of becoming licensed. Both versions are available for download on the NCEES Educational Resources page.

The Speaker’s Kit has played a central role in NCEES outreach activities since its introduction in 2003. Licensing board members and other professional engineers and surveyors across the United States have used the multimedia presentation to explain the licensure process as well as the benefits and responsibilities of licensure to engineering and surveying students and young professionals.

“The best way to learn about licensure and its importance is from someone who knows firsthand,” said Davy McDowell, P.E., NCEES associate executive director. “The Speaker’s Kit is designed to make it easy for professional engineers and surveyors to speak—and to get them in front of students to tell their stories.”

The new Speaker’s Kit for Engineers addresses key concerns of today’s students: how to find a competitive edge in today’s job market and how licensure can prepare them for the unknown. In addition to explaining the licensure system and the steps to becoming a professional engineer, the presentation focuses on personal benefits:

• A P.E. is a member of a profession.
• A P.E. license opens career doors.
• A P.E. license commands a higher salary on average.

This message is also important for the other key audience of the Speaker’s Kit: working, unlicensed engineers. “For those engineering disciplines that have a lower percentage of P.E.s, we want to show how, even though they may not be required to hold a license, there are very real benefits to doing so,” McDowell explained.

The new Speaker’s Kit for Surveyors, likewise, focuses on promoting licensure. Aimed at college students and young professionals, the presentation describes licensure in general, explains how to become a professional surveyor, and describes the exams used for surveying licensure. The kit does not replace the National Society of Professional Surveyors Speaker’s Kit, which was developed with support from NCEES to promote surveying as a career to middle- and high-school students. Rather, NCEES created the new kit to provide outreach materials that focused specifically on licensure.

NCEES designed the new Speaker’s Kit with greater flexibility in mind. Speakers can add or remove content more easily. Slides can be customized for specific groups, such as chemical or mechanical engineering students, or for a state’s specific licensure requirements.

As part of its outreach efforts, NCEES also organizes Speakers Link, a network of licensed engineers and surveyors who are available to talk to students and young professionals about the licensure process—and how licensure has benefited their careers. When NCEES receives a request for a speaker, it looks for a local Speakers Link volunteer who can give the presentation.

“Our goal is to get new speakers, increase speaking opportunities, and ultimately build greater awareness of the benefits and responsibilities of licensure,” McDowell said.

To download the NCEES Speakers Kit, request a speaker, or volunteer to be a part of Speakers Link, go to the NCEES Educational Resources page.

At this year’s Future City Competition finals, held February 18–22 in Washington, D.C., the team from St. Patrick’s Catholic School in Pasco, Washington, won the Best Land Surveying Practices Award, sponsored by NCEES. The team from Pasco competed against more than 33,000 students from middle schools across the country. Thirty-five regional winners were represented at the finals.

As a longtime sponsor of the competition, NCEES was represented at the event’s finals by Martin Pedersen, L.S., a past president, and Gary Thompson, P.L.S., North Carolina board member and chair of the Committee on Examinations for Professional Surveyors. Pedersen and Thompson were judges for the Best Land Surveying Practices Award.

For Pedersen and Thompson, the Future City Competition was a great opportunity to reinforce the importance of surveying while introducing the idea of surveying as a career to some of the nation’s brightest students.

“Surveying plays a big part in developing a city, so we’re happy to share what we do with these students,” said Thompson. “They come away from this knowing what a professional surveyor does, and the teachers and mentors can share that with students in future competitions.”

Since it began 19 years ago, the Future City Competition has been one of the highlights of National Engineers Week. Aimed at students in grades 6–8, the program is designed to spark interest in math, science, and engineering.

Teams feature students working with teachers and volunteer engineer mentors to design models-using both computer software and physical materials-of their vision of a future city based on a given theme. This year’s theme was “Provide a reliable and effective health care product or system that improves a sick, injured, or disabled patient’s quality of life and comfort.” The overall winner of the Future City Competition was the team from Our Lady Help of Christians School in Abington, Pennsylvania.

For more information about the Future City Competition, visit www.futurecity.org.