Continuing education

[Master slacker]

So, since I am a newly registered engineer (yay) what methods and / or classes do you pursue to complete your annual or biennial education requirements? In Louisiana, we need to complete 30 Professional Development Hours (PDH) with at least one in ethics. And seeing how my company no longer wants to pay me to go to conferences anymore, what other ways (not money related) can one achieve these educational hour requirements? Gimme your ideas. Thanks :reading:

 

[snickerd3]

First I would double check to see if you need them for the first renewal, might give you some more time to figure something out. In IL, the PDHs are not required for the first renewal.

 

[CivE Bricky]

So, since I am a newly registered engineer (yay) what methods and / or classes do you pursue to complete your annual or biennial education requirements? In Louisiana, we need to complete 30 Professional Development Hours (PDH) with at least one in ethics. And seeing how my company no longer wants to pay me to go to conferences anymore, what other ways (not money related) can one achieve these educational hour requirements? Gimme your ideas. Thanks :reading:

Free PDH's are exceedingly rare (but sometimes seen) in NY. The only ones I see are sponsored by professional organizations for their members.

My chapter of ASCE usually charges about $30 for a PDH and dinner (and would entertain proposals to pay $10 for PDH only) and also sponsors a day-long event with other professional organizations for $70-80 with lunch. Cooperative Extension and Local Roads Programs are sources of low-cost PDH's if those are available near you. Lastly look for online PDH's via Webinar.

In NY, giving a talk (once) can earn you PDH's -- that's a way to network, gain exposure and earn hours for no charge (but lots of work). Repeat presentations are not eligible. Some states give you credit for attending professional meetings - NY does not unless the topic is pre-approved for PDH's.

 

[Master slacker]

I have until September, 2011, to get my 30. The cheaper (for me) the better.

 

[Fluvial]

Congrats on passing Master Slacker!

I'll second the idea of going to local ASCE, MES or ACEC meetings. I'm also a member of another organization (AFMM) so I always have plenty of PDH hours.

As far as 'free' ones, sometimes a supplier (concrete pipe for example) will hold a lunch-time seminar worth some PDH's.

Membership in a professional association counts as one PDH per here in MS, IIRC.

 

[jeb6294]

Something else you could check out is CENews magazine. They've got a Civil magazine and a Structural magazine that are both free to subscribe to and, if they still do it, every few months they'll have an informational insert with a quiz that you can fax in to whatever company is sponsoring it and they'll mail you a certificate. It's basically like one of those one hour look-how-great-we-are brown bag presentations companies will do at your office except you read the info yourself.

You can also go here, PDH Series, and download them. There are 21 of them on there right now going back to Sep 2006. Of course, some of the really old ones are not valid anymore, but some of them are good for quite a while and your credit will be based on when you complete the quiz not the date the quiz was published so you can download all of them and just pitch the bad ones.

 

[TXCoogPE]

You might want to look over your board's rules on the topic. Some states allow you to fullfill some your requirements through independent studies, teaching, serving on a committee for a professional organization, or other various other options.