Yesterday I participated in “Lokakarya Sertifikasi Insinyur Profesional LSIP” or Professional Engineers Certification Workshop held by “Persatuan Insinyur Indonesia” (Indonesian Engineers Association) in Jakarta. It was very awesome experience and I will tell you why.
At the beginning my motivation behind participating in this workshop was simply to get certified as professional engineer. Maybe if I get certificate, it will add value to myself. After I participated the workshop, being professional engineer is more than that. Being professional means to always work safely, to continuously improve oneself, and to contribute to the society. I am sure there are more than that, but those three points are what I remembered.
What did I get in Lokakarya Sertifikasi Insinyur Profesional LSIP?
In this lokakarya I got explanation about:
- Indonesian Law no 11/2014 about engineering
- Organization structure of Persatuan Insinyur Indonesia (Indonesian Engineers Association)
- Engineer ethics code
- Professional engineer application form – how to fill the application
Why do we need to get certified as Professional Engineer?
One day I asked my friend if he would like to participate in this workshop. He questioned, “Why do we even need to get the certificate? Even as EPC contractor, I don’t need certificate to build a plant”. I thought his answer was really make sense. I also almost canceled my participation in the workshop. But, let’s see what law no 11/2014 stated.
Article 10 paragraph 1 : every engineer who perform engineering practice in Indonesia shall have engineer letter of registration
Article 10 paragraph 2 : engineer letter of registration as mentioned in paragraph 1 is issued by Persatuan Insinyur Indonesia
In simple words, certificate is used to guarantee the quality and to avoid malpractice.
How to apply for Professional Engineer?
Persatuan Insinyur Indonesia classifies professional engineer into three categories:
- Insinyur Profesional Pratama (IPP) or Professional Engineer (PE)
- Insinyur Profesional Madya (IPM) or Senior Professional Engineer (SPE)
- Insinyur Profesional Utama (IPU) or Executive Professional Engineer (EPE)
We have to fill Formulir Aplikasi Insinyur Profesional or Professional Engineer Application Form which covers everything about our career. There will be Assessor Assembly who will assess our application.
My target is to get IPM or Senior Professional Engineer. I think it is very hard to be SPE because the score of application shall be more than 6000. But, I will try.
After we get certificate, then what?
I thought I will sit calmly once I get professional engineer certificate. But, it’s not like that.
Professional engineer certificate is valid for 5 years. After five years, we need to renew it. But, renewal process is not simple. We have to participate at least 50 hours training (formal or informal) every year for renewal. What is the most difficult part? To be discipline to continuously improve yourself. I often busy working and forget to improve myself in a kind of training, participate in professional event, write and publish papers, and so on. In other words, the main objective of this certification is to ensure that every certified engineer always works safely, continuously improve his/her knowledge or skills, and contributes to society. One of speaker in the workshop said it is easy to get certificate at the first time. But, it is hard to get renewal.