The Andrews Labor Government is encouraging organisations interested in supporting Victoria’s new registration scheme for professional engineers to develop and submit assessment schemes.

The assessment schemes will help ensure Victoria’s registered engineers are appropriately qualified and experienced.

Victoria’s new mandatory registration scheme will require professional engineers to meet qualification and experience requirements to be registered, and to complete continuing professional development to renew their registration every three years.

Assessment schemes will set out these requirements and how engineers will be assessed against them.

The Business Licensing Authority (BLA) will approve assessment schemes and rely on the reports issued by organisations administering approved schemes to be satisfied that professional engineers are suitably qualified and experienced to be registered.

The assessment of a professional engineer’s qualifications and experience is the first step for registration in Victoria, under the new scheme jointly administered by the profession and the BLA.

Professional engineers working in five areas will be required to be registered – civil, structural, electrical, mechanical and fire safety engineering.

Registration of professional engineers is being introduced under the Professional Engineers Registration Act 2019, which commences on 1 July 2021, and will be progressively introduced for each of the five areas of engineering by 1 December 2023.

The organisations administering approved assessment schemes will play a key role in ensuring that professional engineering services in Victoria are provided by suitably qualified and experienced engineers.

More information about the new registration requirements for professional engineers, including for organisations interested in applying for approval of assessment schemes, is available at www.consumer.vic.gov.au/engineers.