Focus of engineering management certification program to include China

Emily Smith
ASME NEWS

With the U.S./Canada launch of ASME's Engineering Management Certification International underway, ASME is moving ahead to finalize plans to launch EMCI in China later this year.

The China launch of EMCI is one of several ASME initiatives currently underway that are targeting China.

Next month, the office of the Consortium for Standards and Conformity Assessment, of which ASME is the lead society, will open in Beijing.

ASME's Strategic Initatives Center is preparing a marketing survey of government and industry groups in China to assess needs and interests for ASME to provide educational courses and training.

Results of the survey should be compiled by the summer, and strategies will be reviewed in the fall.

EMCI was developed by ASME, in cooperation with four other engineering societies, to give employers a way to measure the level of engineering management experience held by a potential employee.

The certification is offered in two designations: one at the Fundamental level, the other at the Professional level. In order to take the EMCF exam, participants must have two years of college and five years of engineering practice, or a four-year degree and three years of engineering practice. In both cases, obtaining the credential requires passing an exam.

To take the EMCP exam, participants must have five years of engineering experience, two of which must be in engineering management.

ASME currently offers seven courses in preparation for taking either exam. To maintain the integrity of the credential, both the EMCF and the EMCP designation will expire three years after being earned. Designees must recertify in order to keep the credential current.

The launch of the EMCI program in any country culminates with the offering of the EMC Fundamentals and EMC Professional examinations.

The courses that participants can take to prepare themselves for the examination are available in three forms: online, instructor-led online courses and in-class.

In China, however, courses will be taught in-class only by Tsinghua University. Most of the seven courses offered to prepare for taking the EMCI exams have been translated into Chinese.

ASME and the four other societies that supported the creation of EMCI — the American Society of Civil Engineers, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical and Petroleum Engineers, and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers — are all working to bring attention to EMCI.

Initial advertising in Mechanical Engineering magazine, a brochure mailing and an e-mail blast yielded nearly 100 requests for information about ASME's pending U.S./Canada launch of EMCI. Online courses to prepare for the exams began in February. All but two of those taking the online review courses are in the United States. The Netherlands and Venezuela are the other countries represented.

To further publicize the availability of the EMCI credential, ASME is working with more than a dozen societies and universities to offer the EMCI review courses. To date, agreements have been signed with two: Tsinghua University and the American Management Association. Agreements with 11 other groups are pending.

 

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