What is RPEQ – a Registered Professional Engineer of QLD?

Registered Professional Engineer RPEQ

engineer registration, queensland, RPEQ,

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RPEQ registration is a formal recognition that an engineer meets the high professional and ethical standards required by the Board of Professional Engineers of Queensland (BPEQ).

Through becoming RPEQ certified you are providing clients, stakeholders, and the public with much-needed confidence and skill credibility. You must meet the required standards in your qualifications, skill, competency, and professionalism under the Board of Professional Engineers of Queensland regulations.

The goal of this certification is to implement a certain expectation and quality of work from engineers working on large, expensive, and potentially dangerous construction sites. It is intended to protect against inappropriate, unsafe, poorly designed, or poorly manufactured engineering output.

How to become RPEQ certified?

The RPEQ is formal recognition of your engineering qualification (or equivalent), experience and competency. You must be assessed as a Professional Engineer to be acknowledged as an RPEQ.

In Queensland, it’s a legal requirement to be an RPEQ if you are providing professional engineering services to the public or offering to do so.

There are two ways you can qualify for the RPEQ assessment:

  1. If you are a Chartered Professional Engineer (CPEng)
  2. If you are registered on the National Engineering Register (NER) as a Professional Engineer

Visit Engineers Australia for more information here. © 2021 Engineers Australia

What are the RPEQ requirements?

To qualify to become a RPEQ you must satisfy the below criteria:

  1. Qualification: A minimum four-year Bachelor of Engineering degree from an Australian university. For an overseas qualification, an additional assessment fee is required, unless covered by the Washington Accord.
  2. Competency: have a minimum of five years working as an engineer and carrying out professional engineering services under the guidance and direct supervision of another RPEQ.
  3. Continuing Professional Development: minimum 150 structured CPD hours completed over the previous three years

What role does the Board of Professional Engineers of Queensland play?

The Board of Professional Engineers of Queensland (BPEQ) was established in 1929 under the original Professional Engineers Act (PE Act).

The Board is responsible for regulating the engineering profession across Queensland. They do this by implementing a fair and consistent set of standards, designed to uphold the highest engineering conduct across all disciplines.

The main purpose of the PE Act is the establishment of the regulatory scheme for engineers, known as the Registered Professional Engineer of Queensland (RPEQ) system.

Their objectives:

  1. Protect the public by ensuring professional engineering services are provided by an RPEQ in a professional and competent way.
  2. Maintain public confidence in the standard of services provided by RPEQs.
  3. Uphold the standards of practice of RPEQs.

Their functions:

  • to assess registration applications
  • to register engineers as RPEQs
  • to conduct, or authorise, investigations about the professional conduct of RPEQs and contraventions of the PE Act
  • keep a register of RPEQs
  • to advise the Minister

Visit the BPEQ website here for more information. © Board of Professional Engineers of Queensland (BPEQ) 2020.

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