Driver or Engineer?

[GB]

...or you could use "Train Manager (TM)", opps...a certain company has already used that term for drivers for years.

 

[Railsigns]

An engineer is someone who fixes your washing machine.

Try telling that to someone with an engineering qualification.

 

[swt_passenger]

The job title "Engineer" is protected in the United Kingdom. That is to say, you can't just call yourself an engineer - you have to be qualified to be one!

I believe that there's no legal protection in this country. The railway maintains their traditional terminology such as fitter for their own reasons - OTOH there doesn't seem anything to stop British Gas continually advertising the services of their 'engineers' - they've been exaggerating the 'gas fitter' qualifications for years...

IIRC back in the 70s the various engineering institutes (under the CEI umbrella) were hoping to formally differentiate between Engineering Technicians, Technician Engineers, and Engineers, but I don't think it was ever formalised by law.

You would usually find the terms used properly in education and training, and by academics, but for the public it seems anything goes...

 

[RPM]

I'd like to stick with Driver for my job title please. There's been enough job retitling on the railway since I joined up. Guards became Customer Service Inspectors and Train Hosts. Station Managers became Customer Service Managers. Booking Clerks became Retail Travel Advisors. Yuk. I dread to think what they'd come up with for drivers. Train Operative & Customer Service Host or some such ghastly hogwash.

 

[swt_passenger]

I dread to think what they'd come up with for drivers. Train Operative & Customer Service Host or some such ghastly hogwash.

Could be a lot worse, they could start with Train Operator and Safety Supervisor...

 

[ralphchadkirk]

The job title "Engineer" is protected in the United Kingdom. That is to say, you can't just call yourself an engineer - you have to be qualified to be one!

For example, a recognised time-served apprentice or an engineering degree will allow you to use the title legally.

That is why the railway have "fitters" or "rolling stock technicians", legally they cannot be called engineers because of there qualification type.

Engineer isn't a protected title. Chartered Engineer is only protected by civil law.

 

[talltim]

I think driver is a a good name, and its actually engineer (for US train drivers) that is a misleading title.

My Job title was until recently Systems Engineer, which told no-one what I actually do. Its now IT Infrastructure Engineer, which is a bit more descriptive.

 

[ComUtoR]

What about Train Slave or TOC Robot ?

 

[talltim]

...or you could use "Train Manager (TM)", opps...a certain company has already used that term for drivers for years.

And also other companies have used it for the guard

 

[AnonymousUser1]

The job title "Engineer" is protected in the United Kingdom. That is to say, you can't just call yourself an engineer - you have to be qualified to be one!

For example, a recognised time-served apprentice or an engineering degree will allow you to use the title legally.

That is why the railway have "fitters" or "rolling stock technicians", legally they cannot be called engineers because of there qualification type.

Engineer is NOT protected in the UK

also a time served apprentice is NOT an engineer by the definitions used by the EngC

a time-served apprentice May be eligible to apply for recognition as a Engineering Technician especially if they have done level 4 or even 5 quals

Professional Engineers have academic knowledge equal to NQF5 ,6 or 7

Incorporated is generally HND or BEng for academic exemption, and BEng and additional study or MEng is needed for academic exemption for Chartered .

as others have said there is a possibilty for action against someone who claimes to be an Eng Tech / Ieng or Ceng without actually holding the accreditation - but unlike impersonating a Lawyer or health professional this is all within the civil law and there's no 'licence to practice' for engineers in the UK (in general - there are specific things but equally you don;t have to have Eg C to do the qualification) where as a lawyer or health professional can;t practice without their registration and are legally prevented from legitimately doing certain things that are integral to practice.

 

[ac6000cw]

An engineer is someone who fixes your washing machine.

I gave up worrying about that one years ago - trying to explain that designing electronics (as I do for a living) is real engineering, whereas the other person is a repair technician usually just results in blank looks...

An interesting UK/US wide divergence in function for the same job title is 'dispatcher' - it's a passenger platform staff role in the UK, but a high-level signaller/train controller in the US (nearest equivalent here is probably a signaller in an ROC). The low-level 'signallers' in the US were train-order, telegraph or interlocking tower 'operators' (almost extinct roles nowadays).

 

[Domh245]

I gave up worrying about that one years ago - trying to explain that designing electronics (as I do for a living) is real engineering...

...is one type of real engineering. In my mind, engineering usually involves mechanical parts, but then again, as someone wanting to go into mechanical engineering, I suppose it would be. I suspect an aero engineer would tell you that real engineering is to do with aerofoils though!

 

[ac6000cw]

...is one type of real engineering. In my mind, engineering usually involves mechanical parts, but then again, as someone wanting to go into mechanical engineering, I suppose it would be. I suspect an aero engineer would tell you that real engineering is to do with aerofoils though!

Of course

As others have mentioned, the roots of the word are the same as for 'ingenuity' (e.g. designing something that can do for 50p what others might charge a pound for - designing a better product is generally what people pay you for in my part of the business i.e. either pushing the envelope on performance/size/power, or reducing the cost to make it).

 

[Elecman]

The job title "Engineer" is protected in the United Kingdom. That is to say, you can't just call yourself an engineer - you have to be qualified to be one!

For example, a recognised time-served apprentice or an engineering degree will allow you to use the title legally.

That is why the railway have "fitters" or "rolling stock technicians", legally they cannot be called engineers because of there qualification type.

Engineer is not protected in the UK, the use of the post nominal of x.Eng IS protected to those on the Engineers Registration Board register, who only qualified Engineers can be registered to.

 

[AnonymousUser1]

I gave up worrying about that one years ago - trying to explain that designing electronics (as I do for a living) is real engineering, whereas the other person is a repair technician usually just results in blank looks...

An interesting UK/US wide divergence in function for the same job title is 'dispatcher' - it's a passenger platform staff role in the UK, but a high-level signaller/train controller in the US (nearest equivalent here is probably a signaller in an ROC). The low-level 'signallers' in the US were train-order, telegraph or interlocking tower 'operators' (almost extinct roles nowadays).

interestingly the US use of 'Dispatcher' is used in the Uk emergency services control rooms forthe role of the people who actually send the calls to the units on the ground ( some places all them allocatorsd instead/ as well )