CPC Tracking And Courses or activities people do to maintain PE

[rafsan06]

Hi,
I was wondering what people do to maintain their Continuing Education requirements? Are they enrolling in courses or they are getting credit for what they are doing on every day at their job as a PE? As every state has different requirements, how do people keep track when they have license in multiple states?

Any help in this matter would be great

 

[Tiger15]

The requirements (what counts for CPCs) varies by state, so make sure you know your state requirements. I tend to take enough training at work that I cover my requirement.

As far as tracking multiple states, myNCEES website has a CPC tracking sections and for many states you can submit that record to them. That's the ideal solution.
Personally I track on myNCEES and I also keep a spreadsheet in Google Drive. Fortunately I'm only tracking for one state though.

 

[rafsan06]

The requirements (what counts for CPCs) varies by state, so make sure you know your state requirements. I tend to take enough training at work that I cover my requirement.

As far as tracking multiple states, myNCEES website has a CPC tracking sections and for many states you can submit that record to them. That's the ideal solution.
Personally I track on myNCEES and I also keep a spreadsheet in Google Drive. Fortunately I'm only tracking for one state though.

How do you take training at work? and how does NCEES verify that and count credits? Can you elaborate on the process please?

 

[Tiger15]

How do you take training at work? and how does NCEES verify that and count credits? Can you elaborate on the process please?

All NCEES does is record whatever you enter. They have no role in CPC requirements nor in verification. NCEES will submit whatever you've entered to your state board IF your state is one of the states that participates in their tracking.

CPC requirements are leveed by your state board. How many hours are needed, what disciplines, and what types of activities count varies by state. It's YOUR responsibility to know the state's requirements and make sure you follow them.

I'm in Louisiana. I have to get 15 hours per year and 1 hour has to be in ethics. Louisiana is very open with what activities count for CPC credit. Here's an excerpt from the Louisiana board rules...

A. PDHs may be earned as indicated in §3113 for the following activities:

1. successful completion of college courses, correspondence courses, continuing education courses, seminars, tutorials, and short courses, and/or by teaching/instructing these items;

2. attending or presenting qualifying seminars; in-house courses sponsored by corporations, governmental agencies or other organizations; workshops; or professional/technical presentations made at meetings, conventions, or conferences;

3. obtaining teaching credit for teaching/instructing or presenting. To obtain credit for teaching/instructing
or presenting, licensees must be able to document that research and preparation were necessary, such as in the case of first-time teaching;

4. membership in engineering and land surveying professional associations or technical societies;

5. authoring and publishing articles/papers in engineering or land surveying journals; or authoring and publishing books related to engineering or land surveying;

6. obtaining patents;

7. formal, documented problem preparation for NCEES or state professional engineering or land surveying exams;

8. serving as thesis directors for students pursuing a masters or doctoral degree in engineering; and

9. serving on technical committees that are assisting federal, state or local governmental agencies in developing standards related to engineering or land surveying.

B. PDHs may not be earned through informal, non-structured activities such as reading technical journals.

So in Louisiana almost anything can count assuming it's of a technical nature.

• college courses
• seminars
• tutorials
• conferences
• in-house training
• workshops
• technical presentations made at meetings, conventions, conferences
• And a list of things that aren't really training like professional membership, obtaining patents, publishing journal articles, etc.

Louisiana doesn't do anything to pre-qualify any activity. Basically if it's falls into one of the above categories and you can justify it, then the board is pretty open about counting it. So for me personally,

• I attend lots of free online webinars by engineering software companies (i.e. workshops/tutorials by other organizations),
• periodically my company does training (i.e. in-house courses sponsored by my corporation)
• and technical meetings (i.e. technical presentations made at meetings),
• I usually attend a local engineering conference by one of the local universities (i.e. professional/technical presentations made a conferences)
• and sometimes my job pays for me to take a training class (i.e. continuing education courses, seminars, tutorials, and short courses)

So I've never had a problem meeting my CPC requirement. I usually have extra hours. Functionally, the way it works in Louisiana is when you submit your application to renew your PE license you also have to fill out a form with all your CPC stuff (or submit through NCEES)

Now other states are different. I've heard that some states only consider continuing education by a preapproved list of vendors or presentations at major conferences like ASCE or IEEE. That why I say that it's YOUR responsibility to know your states rules.

 

[Tiger15]

Here's a screenshot of my google drive spreadsheet. I formatted it to exactly match my state's log that has to be submitted with your renewal application. (2020 was the first year I had to start getting CPCs.)

 

[rafsan06]

Here's a screenshot of my google drive spreadsheet. I formatted it to exactly match my state's log that has to be submitted with your renewal application. (2020 was the first year I had to start getting CPCs.)

View attachment 22743

I was actually wondering if there is any company that offer courses. I have to get multiple state license as my company does business all over the east and mid USA. I will have to do the maximum required one and hope every other state will be good to that.

 

[squaretaper LIT AF PE]

2020 was the first year I had to start getting CPCs

*laughs in Californian*

 

[Assistant to the RM]

I was actually wondering if there is any company that offer courses. I have to get multiple state license as my company does business all over the east and mid USA. I will have to do the maximum required one and hope every other state will be good to that.

Once you are registered in your state's licensing database, you will probably find yourself on several mailing lists. At least I assume that's why I have been getting emails from companies such as PDH Now, etc. and paper mailings from Halfmoon Education, etc. for as long as I've been a PE. I have enough courses and seminars throughout the course of my year that I've never had to sign up for anything extra, but I've had coworkers do short 1 hour PDH courses where you watch a video or read an article and answer some questions.

Check your state(s)' requirements but in most cases it is up to you to determine whether a course or activity qualifies as continuing education, and it is up to you to track it. All states that I have that require continuing education simply ask you if you've met the requirements during renewal, you don't have to actually turn anything in at that time. Then they audit a few people in which case you do have to submit your proof of education, such as a certificate from a course or an attendance sheet from a seminar.