822P801238PCE UAE(NEWSLETTER 2008No2

We meet on the first & second Tuesday of each month in Abu Dhabi & Dubai respectively & plan related visits on the third Tuesday plus other events throughout the Emirates. Come along for Continuing Professional Development (CPD), meet colleagues and network

The seminar and conference season is still with us and the ICE, IMEchE (IET) Convention in Cairo in January seems a long way back. Here we mention plans for March and refer to events in February plus some other matters under headings

· PLANS, PROGRAMMES AND VENUES

· MARKETING, MEMBERSHIP & MOTIVATION

· MISCELLANEOUS HISTORICAL NOTES

PLANS, PROGRAMMES AND VENUES

While our Programme Secretary aims to hold to the outline framework Themes and Topics for the year he has had major problems with actual speakers for recent and current months, but as we planned, meetings will take place as scheduled and we can network and offer to speak if necessary.

MARCH - We do hope that March is fixed for the presentations in Abu Dhabi and Dubai to be followed by a site visit to the very interesting HH Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi. Copy of NOTICE attached.

FEBRUARY – We had postponed the talks and visit planned for December until this month, but regrettably the speakers were not available and may make presentations later. Copy of mended NOTICE attached:

Abu Dhabi Tuesday 2008 02 05 - the Chair projected a DVD purchased at Karnak when he attended a Son et Lumière show at the temple which, like the pyramids, shows impressive building construction of 3000 years ago. We wonder what real progress has been made in the intervening years!

PCE UAE members are invited to let us have DVDs of their more recent interesting projects or processes so that these may be used in emergencies or on a programmed audio-visual evening.

Dubai Tuesday 2008 02 12 – Despite the cancellation of the talk on Planning, Power and Calibration we were fortunate to have an interesting presentation by Hayder Ibrahim, GM of CORUS (now TATA) on ‘Composite Metal Decking for Structural Steel & BI-Steel. We had a turnout of around 20 at the Seamens’ Centre – all registered members of at least 6 PEI, some not yet Chartered but planning to seek CEng or IEng via their PEI.

The previous drive from Abu Dhabi took two and a half hours to reach the Seamens’ Centre but we managed to cut half an hour off by re-routing to avoid Sheikh Zayed Road. It took o a little over one and a half hours to drive back around midnight after an enjoyable evening rounded off by dinner with Hyder and others. PCE UAE has now booked the facilities at the Seamens’ Centre, Dubai for the regular Dubai meetings. It is near the port but ask the HonSec for a location map when you register to attend an event.

Ghantout Tuesday 2008 02 29 We met as previously agreed and had a good attendance of Chartered Engineers to support younger potential applicants for CEng and IEng via their chosen PEI. Numbers and disciplines were equal from Abu Dhabi and Dubai. We believe that many others would benefit from these sessions which are relatively informal, but would be upgraded to levels previously reached when full facilities were made available for lectures and showing of training films such as typical Chartered Professional Review (CPR) Interviews and necessary personal skills development (eg Planning, Presentations, Time Management.

SPEAKERS & VISITS - Please check the PROGRAMME outline on www.pceuae.net and contact the Honorary Secretary (cc ProgSec) if you or someone else are prepared to arrange a related presentation as we aim to have scheduled speakers for the year plus standby members. Also, we have had offers ‘ requests for specialist topic conferences and seminars. Much as we would wish, we can not arrange these without adequate capital back up and corporate sponsorship support. Ideas and offers are welcome write to our HonSec who will pass it on.

822P80216PCE UAE(NEWSLETTER 2008No3 CHECK WEB www..pceuae.net Page 2

MARKETING, MEMBERSHIP & MOTIVATION

STATUS - I am frequently surprised and disappointed by the number of occasions where individuals, Governments, customers, clients, etc. know little (or nothing) about qualifications related to Professional Engineering. It seems to me that if we do not do our own ‘marketing’ no one else will do so effectively.

International and UK based Organisations (ETB, EC Etc)- As I understand it the Engineering and Technology Board (ETB) has a remit and funding (at least £750 000 from ICE alone) to ‘Market’ the Profession and its related qualifications CEng, IEng, EngT awarded via the 36 Engineering Council PEIs. They say that about 15% of registrants are non British Nationals and approx. 25% are based overseas.

Professional Engineering Institutions (PEI) – Each of the 36 PEI have an international membership and as such should support local “marketing’ efforts. PCE UAE which attempts to bring together all members of all EC licensed PEI – even the sole member of one PEI finds it rather frustrating when some PEI are not prepared to work with colleagues or even parts of PEI not communicating with other parts.

This month the chief Executive of one PEI in reply to our recent PCE UAE invitation to join and work with us (a repeat of the invitation sent in 1996) could not even provide us with the number of members in UAE. This was especially poignant when we have a Committee member in that PEI as a secondary membership and as we the received an e-mail from another new arrival who is in the same PEI but has now decided to aim for CEng via another PEI where the UK HQ support our efforts of working together.

PCE UAE – We have a responsibility to ‘market’ our Professional Group, its related UK based units and the Professional qualifications awarded by EC and PEI based on UK-SPEC and related standards. Working as a multi-discipline Group we are better able to work with the UAE Society of Engineers (UAESE) which includes all engineering disciplines plus Architecture, Building and Surveying. We must ‘market’ the value of EC Registration which is not yet accepted by the Government authorities for Residence Visas, Work Permits etc.

I have had the privilege to discuss this with the Minister of Labour (and having explained) received my initially rejected visa. However there are other difficulties where senior experienced engineers – even qualified as CEng can not get approval for visas because they do not have degrees. Marketing of the value of EC Registration internationally is much needed.

In my experience CEng and / or Corporate membership of a PEI is NOT an internationally accepted qualification as frequently stated. I believe the task lies with UK at Government level. We can try to help by quoting such qualifications and explaining what they mean. To this end, while at the Convention in Cairo I redrafted a small A4 leaflet and passed a copy to the President of ICE and was pleased to receive a hand written card: “Dear Alister, Very many thanks for letting me see your revised version of the leaflet. I found it most interesting setting out the arrangements so clearly and concisely. I particularly enjoyed the quotation from Mark Brunel. Best wishes for the future of PCE UAE, and of course to you and Isabel. Such feedback is greatly appreciated, especially as none has been received previously even to point out (deliberate) mistakes!

Individual Members – We all are responsible for carrying out our own “Marketing’ and many do little to achieve results by quoting their qualifications such as CEng. This is not helped by increasing use of cryptic e-mails and SMS votes. I have proposed (and used) for some years the use of the Prenominal Er for a fully qualified Chartered Engineer who is or has been a Fellow of an EC licensed PEI. This would allow some of us as expatriates (who are never likely to be FREng as is John Baxter President of IMechE who also attended the Cairo Convention) to be identified for life as senior professional engineers without the need to quote any post nominal qualifications. This would be quite distinct from the common usage in many parts of the Middle East for a graduate engineer to be designated ‘Eng”. Any views on this would be appreciated..

Organisations (Clients, Consultants, Contractors etc) – Support to PCE UAE from such organisations has been very limited over the last 12 years – limited in relation to sponsorship support awarded by many such companies to events and activities in UK and elsewhere. It always surprised me when studying the ICE list of accredited companies and branch offices that many major UK based companies were accredited for training in UK, Hong Kong and elsewhere, including Moscow – but none in UAE a former British Protectorate. We have now had indications that some National and expatriate companies seek such accreditation from major PEI.

Some (few) firms have sponsored NEWSLETTER issues. I refer particularly to Hyder Consultants as I noted at a screening of their company DVD that they had ‘absorbed’ Sir Bruce White Wolfe Barry and Partners in 1991. I worked with SBW on the $2bn 40 contract Dammam Development Project in Saudi Arabia then ‘lost’ them. From books from Hyder I traced the ‘family tree’ back to founders and found that many were multi-discipline and became Presidents of more than one Institution. We may issue the result if interest is shown.

PCE	PROFESSIONAL CHARTERED ENGINEERS	PCE
UAE	UNITED ARAB EMIRATES GROUP	UAE