Continuing Education Requirements for IN PEs

The State Board of Registration for Professional Engineers regulates the practice of engineering and establishes continuing education standards in Indiana. Continuing education is referred to as Continuing Professional Competency (CPC) by the Indiana Board. Engineers in Indiana must earn 30 professional development hour credits every two years. Ethics courses are accepted but not required. Indiana pre-approves course providers. PDH-Pro is an approved CPC provider. License renewal for all engineers is July 31st of even numbered years.

Listed below are the Indiana professional engineer (PE) license renewal requirements.

We prepared a detailed summary and review of the Indiana continuing education requirements (read the article).

Engineering Continuing Education Requirements for Indiana

When you are a licensed professional engineer in Indiana, you have to obtain continuing education credits to renew your license. Therefore, you should be asking: what are the continuing education requirements for Indiana engineers?

You are expected to earn 30 professional development hours (PDH) every 2 years to renew your license. The courses you take must improve and enhance the engineering skills you already have. Engineering licenses are renewed on July 31st of even-numbered years.

When it comes to the 30 PDH credits you need for license renewal, you have to earn them from providers that have been pre-approved by the state. To save yourself some time and effort, you can find many of these courses on PDH-Pro, which will fulfill the continuing education requirements you need to renew your Indiana engineering license.

Indiana Engineering PDH Credits

The State Board of Registration for Professional Engineers establishes the continuing education standards, which are also referred to as Continuing Professional Competency, in the State of Indiana.

Every engineer is required to renew their license every 2 years, and one of the credits must be earned in ethics, while another credit must be earned in Indiana rules and laws. When it comes to the courses you take, they must have objectives that have been clearly stated to the course participants.

You have the ability to renew your license online. You won’t submit your certificates of completion at the time of renewal, but you are expected to maintain either paper or electronic documents for 3 years in case you are randomly audited.

Indiana PE License Renewal Dates

You are required to have your renewal documentation before the license renewal deadline, which occurs on July 31st of even-numbered years.

Since you have access to an easy-to-use online platform to renew your license, if you don’t fulfill the continuing education requirements for Indiana engineers by the deadline, this will result in disciplinary action taken by the Board. Having a temporarily lapsed license is considered to be practicing without an engineering license, and that could get you into a lot of trouble.

If any disciplinary actions are taken against you by the Board because of non-renewal or administrative oversight, you are required to report that information to other state engineering boards in a timely manner so that you can avoid any other sanctions that might arise due to failure of notification.

Indiana Professional Engineer Record Keeping Requirements

Since the Board conducts random audits of engineers during their license renewal, you are expected to maintain your certificates of completion for the PDH credits you have earned for 3 years. If you are audited, you have 21 days from the initial request to produce copies of your certificates.

The Board accepts both electronic and paper documentation, as long as they have the following information:

• The course provider or institution’s name
• The instructor’s name
• Course title
• Course completion date
• How many credit hours were awarded

The vast majority of course providers will supply you with a certificate of completion that adheres to the continuing education requirements for Indiana engineers.

Being able to quickly and easily access this information is vital, and using an online system might be beneficial. PDH-Pro gives you the ability to access your course information at any time through your online account.

Take note that you cannot submit payment receipts or agenda points that were earned from seminars unless they are accompanied by valid certificates of completion.

Continuing Education Activities Accepted by Indiana

The courses and activities that you use to earn your 30 PDH credits can vary, but they must relate to your engineering profession. It’s also imperative that they have a clear objective and purpose, and they need to improve or maintain the skills you need to effectively work in your engineering field.

Courses and activity topics can include:

• Business management
• Project management
• Legal courses
• Ethics
• Cross-industry collaboration skills
• Any other course that is relevant to your engineering field

When it comes to the instructors that are approved to provide the continuing education courses, they are expected to be highly competent in their field of expertise and have the necessary academic and industry experience.

Should you decide to take an online course, it must verify your learning outcomes by administering a quiz or test to qualify it as a Board-approved continuing education course.

Other ways you can earn the continuing education requirements for Indiana engineers include:

Online Courses

These must be relevant to your engineering field of practice. The Board does not limit how many online courses you can take to meet your continuing education requirements.

Live Webinars

Live webinars are similar to online courses, but they give you the opportunity to interact with the instructor and other participants. Like the online courses, these will be accepted by the Board as long as they are relevant to your engineering field. Again, there are no limits to how many live webinars you can take to earn your PDH credits.

Seminars

As long as this in-person learning experience meets the requirements outlined by the Board, you can use them for license renewal. Seminars include courses provided by institutions of higher learning, conference presentations or presentations that are given by Board-approved providers, engineering societies or networking meetings.

Make sure you acquire certificates of completion from the seminar provider so that you can prove that you fulfilled your continuing education requirements if you get audited by the Board.

Pre-Approval of Continuing Education Activities

The Board pre-approves the courses and activities you need to fulfill the continuing education requirements for Indiana engineers. However, their pre-approval is limited to the institutes and organizations that provide the courses. They don’t pre-approve the course contents.

Thus, is it up to you to determine if the course or activity you take meets the license renewal requirements. To help with this endeavor, you can access the Board’s guidelines online.

Free Continuing Education Courses for Indiana Engineers

There are several free online courses that are offered to Indiana professional engineers. As a member of the ASME or ASCE, you may also be able to access free courses as part of your membership.

In addition, you can use U.S. patents, papers published in peer-reviewed journals and any courses you might teach to obtain the required number of PDH credits.

Engineering Discipline Restrictions

You have the option of completing continuing education courses that don’t directly relate to your engineering field, as long as they contribute to your engineering practice.

Since the practice of engineering requires a broad understanding of many fields, including biology, chemistry, physics, math and other technical areas, the Board encourages you to expand into other fields to fulfill your continuing education requirements for Indiana engineers.