NCEES Continuing Professional Competency Standard
(last revised August 2018 )
NCEES Position Statement 10, Continuing Professional Competency, endorses the establishment of uniform
continuing professional competency (CPC) requirements for licensed professional engineers and surveyors to
safeguard the health, safety, and welfare of the public by requiring licensees to remain competent within their
profession.
Uniform requirements benefit licensees by facilitating licensure renewal and by supporting mobility across
jurisdictions. Licensees are expected to meet the CPC requirements of the jurisdictions in which they have been
granted a license by comity, reciprocity, or endorsement.
Because many engineers and surveyors are licensed in multiple jurisdictions, uniformity of CPC requirements
among licensing jurisdictions that mandate CPC is imperative to simplify the licensure-renewal process, to
enhance the mobility of licensees, to facilitate the recognition of CPC by multiple jurisdictions, and to ensure the
viability of continuing professional competency.
NCEES encourages boards to allow their licensees to satisfy either the CPC requirements of their board or to
satisfy the NCEES CPC Standard as defined below. Doing so will promote licensure mobility, especially for
boards whose CPC requirements differ from the NCEES Model Rules.
The NCEES CPC Standard requires a licensee to obtain the equivalent of 15 professional
development hours (PDHs) per calendar year (January 1–December 31) with no carryover
allowed. A minimum of 1 PDH of the 15 PDHs shall be earned by successfully completing a
course or activity that has content areas focusing on engineering or surveying ethics,
improving a licensee’s business practice or operations, or advancing professionally related
skills and practices as applicable to the practice of engineering or surveying.
The qualifying activities for these PDHs are defined in Model Rules 240.30.