Guide to the Best Courses for Texas Continuing Education

In 42 out of 50 states, engineers must meet continuing education requirements to retain their license.

Meeting legal requirements is only one reason to look into continuing your education as an engineer. If you choose the right programs, it’s the best way to become a valuable employee and protect your community.

The best engineering classes allow students to cater their education to fit their schedule. They help them stay legal, sharpen their skills, and advance to higher levels in their career.

Read our Texas engineering continuing education guide to learn the benefits of finding the right courses, the requirements you must meet to renew your license, and where to find the right courses.

Benefits of Continuing Education for Engineers in Texas

Engineering is a competitive field that already has at least 1.6 million employees. Adding to this number requires learning and maintaining skills that set you apart from other applications.

Continuing education is a valuable career advancement tool. It shows you’re committed to meeting legal standards, improving your skills, and keeping your knowledge up-to-date.

Continuing education hones essential engineering skills. It improves problem-solving, computer science, creativity, structural analysis, and data modeling. It also helps engineers work together as members of a team.

Continuing education also helps employers. It allows their employees to become more productive and increases their morale.

Continuing education can even improve the health and safety of the entire community. It prevents unethical behavior at the workplace and reduces dangerous mistakes.

Texas Engineering Continuing Education Requirements

Professional engineers in Texas must renew their license every year. To do so, they need to provide documentation to prove that you’ve met continuing education requirements.

Professionals engineers in Texas must log at least 15 hours of continuing education every year, including 1 hour of ethics training. This time is known as PDH or professional development hours.

In order to satisfy this requirement, you must know which activities count towards it and how to get them.

Which Courses Count?

The way you meet your legal requirements is up to you, but the activities you choose must meet certain standards. They must last for at least an hour and be listed in the state board’s list of acceptable options.

Ways to earn the Texas engineer PDH hours you need include:

• Completing or auditing college courses
• Courses and tutorials
• Presenting at or attending seminars, in-house courses, or workshops,
• Teaching
• Becoming a member of a professional or technical society, association, agency, or organization
• Publishing papers, articles, books, and/or licensing examinations
• Earning a patent
• Educational outreach activities
• Self-directed study

Be sure to check the regulations to find out what else qualifies as continuing education for engineers in Texas.

Where Can I Take Them?

You can take a course that meets your requirements at almost any major university or college. There are also several acceptable seminars, tutorials, and other activities to choose from as well.

Look for the best engineering classes when deciding how to continue your education. Remember self-study options and include ethics courses.

Texas is unique from other states in that it allows engineers to use self-study to meet continuing education requirements. As the name suggests, this refers to PDH units you earn by completing activities on your own.

There is a wide range of acceptable self-study continuing education activities. They include watching videos of Board meetings and taking self-directed courses. You can complete a maximum of 5 PDH hours this way.

Obtaining the ethics portion of your continuing education PDH hours requires specialized courses. They teach you how to complete your duties responsibly. They need to be repeated each year because standards change.

How Long Will It Take?

The amount of time it takes each year to meet your Texas engineer PDH hour requirements varies. It depends on which activities you complete and how often. The path will look different for each individual.

Teaching or completing relevant college courses is one of the fastest ways to earn enough PDH hours. Patents and papers are also a quick method.

Engineers may take longer to meet their requirements using other methods. Choose the best engineering classes that align with your time, career goals, and budget.

Regardless of how long it takes, continuing education the only way to retain your license as an engineer. It’s also the best way to sharpen old skills while learning new ones and increasing your attractiveness to employers.

How to Choose Texas Engineering Continuing Education Courses

Budgets and career goals aren’t the only factors to consider when deciding which classes to take. The best courses should be reliable, varied, flexible, and offer a money-back guarantee.

Look into the history of every engineering continuing education course you’re considering. Make sure that it’s taught by an accredited professor and that previous students can attest to its quality.

The more types of courses you take, the more skills you can master. Look for a course provider whose offerings cover a wide range of topics.

The best engineering classes should fit into your lifestyle. Online courses are flexible and easily accessible, making them a great option.

Continuing education is an investment in your future that you’ll want to protect. Providers who are confident in their courses will offer a money-back guarantee if you’re unsatisfied with them for any reason.

Do plenty of research before committing to any form of continuing education for engineers in Texas. Picking the first courses you find to meet legal requirements won’t serve you in the long run.

Where to Find the Best Engineering Classes in Texas

Learning is more than earning a degree. It’s a life-long process of sharpening skills and staying up-to-date on new developments.

Continuing education is more than a way to meet a legal requirement. It’s the only way to keep up with ever-changing landscapes like technology and ethics.

The best engineering classes provide a range of benefits. They lead to career success and improve workplace productivity and morale. They can even keep entire communities safe from ethical and safety violations.

The earlier you begin your continuing education journey, the sooner you can enjoy the benefits it provides. View our course library to get started today.