Introduction
In
May 2010, Pennsylvania mandated that Professional
Engineers, Land Surveyors, and Geologists licensed in Pennsylvania must
complete 24 Professional Development Hours, PDHs, of continuing education in
each two-year renewal cycle as a condition of license renewal. Following is
a review of activities which are acceptable to earn PDHs for renewal of
Pennsylvania licenses.
Activities
Acceptable to Earn PDHs
Continuing professional competency obtained by a licensee
should maintain, improve or expand skills and knowledge obtained prior to
initial licensure, including law and ethics applicable to the profession, or
develop new and relevant skills and knowledge. No credit shall be given for
a course in practice building or office management.
PDH units may be earned as follows:
-
Successful completion of college courses relevant to professional
practice.
-
Completion of continuing education courses relevant to professional
practice.
-
Completion of correspondence, televised, videotaped and other short
courses or tutorials relevant to professional practice.
-
Completion of seminars, employer-sponsored courses, workshops or
professional or technical presentations made at meetings, conventions or
conferences relevant to professional practice.
-
Teaching, presenting or instructing in any of the activities listed in
clauses 1, 2, 3, and 4.
-
Authoring published papers, articles or books relevant to professional
practice.
-
Obtaining patents relevant to professional practice.
College of Engineering Programs
The Penn State
College of Engineering offers activities in areas 1 through 4 above.
Following are some of the College's current offerings for each area.
College
credit courses
The courses
described in this section are standard, university courses for which credit
is awarded. They have all the rigor and expectations of any Penn State
credit course.
Distance
Education Courses - The College offers a variety
of undergraduate and graduate courses in a distance education format and delivered via the internet. For a list of the courses available
and for information about each, go to:
http://www.engr.psu.edu/cde/distance/distance.html. The web page
also tells you how to get answers to questions you may have about the
enrollment process, course administration, or the technology you will need
to participate.
World
Campus - Penn State's World Campus,
http://www.worldcampus.psu.edu/,
offers a broad range of courses and programs to learners studying at a
distance. Some of these may be acceptable activities for the acquisition of
PDHs. That judgment is left to the reader.
Continuing
education courses
Continuing
education courses of the College do not confer academic credits like the
courses above. Instead, participants are awarded Continuing Education Units,
CEUs, or Professional Development Hours, PDHs, for satisfactory completion
of each course. The courses described here will be those delivered
face-to-face. Courses delivered via the internet or other technologies will
be listed in the next section.
The College
offers a number of engineering-related short courses that may be of interest to PEs seeking PDHs. For a complete
list of our short courses and other non-credit programs, see:
http://www.engr.psu.edu/cde/Short/short-courses-current.htm
Correspondence, televised, videotaped and other short courses or tutorials
At this time,
there are no short courses being offered in a distance format. However, we
expect to add some in the near future, so please check back.
Seminars,
workshops or conferences with technical presentations
Every year,
the College sponsors several conferences for professionals in a specialized
area. These conferences typically feature a variety of technical
presentations by professionals knowledgeable in the field. Examples of such
programs include:
