CEU Requirements for Indiana Professional Engineers
Everything you need to know about renewing your Professional Engineer license in Indiana.
Every two years, Indiana engineers must earn 30 Professional Development Hours (PDHs) in order to renew their professional license. These courses must be completed within the two years of your license and must enhance and improve your engineering skills. Your engineering license is valid for two years and must be renewed by July 31st of even numbered years.
The 30 PDH credits required for a license renewal must be completed every two years in Indiana, offered by a course provider pre-approved by the state. As an approved Continuing Professional Competency (CPC) provider, PDH-Pro offers complete packages for professional engineers in Indiana. Our courses satisfy all Indiana continuing education requirements, so you can renew your license with ease.
Check out the complete requirements for license renewals here – Indiana Professional Engineers Renewal Requirements.
Please note that renewals for engineering licenses are due on 31st July every even numbered years.
Indiana PDH Credits
Continuing education standards, also known as Continuing Professional Competency (CPC) are established by the State Board of Registration for Professional Engineers (the Board), which also regulates the practice of engineering in the state of Indiana.
Every PE is required by the Board to renew their engineering license biennially (every two years) by completing 30 PDH credits during their renewal period. Out of the 30 credits, one must be in ethics and one in Indiana Rules and Laws. All courses must have objectives that are clearly identified and stated to the participants.
The Indiana professional engineering renewal process is completed online. Instead of submitting certificates of PDH courses completed during the online renewal, the Board requires engineers to keep copies (paper of electronic) of the certificates for three years for auditing purposes.
Indiana License Renewal Dates
License renewals in Indiana take place every two years, completed by the deadline of July 31st every other year (in even number years).
The Board has implemented an easy to use online platform for license renewals. Failing to renew your engineering license before the stated deadline will warrant disciplinary action by the Board, including in the event of a temporarily lapsed license, which is considered to be practicing engineering without a license.
In case of a disciplinary decision against you by the Board for non-renewal or other license related administrative oversight (which the Board issues to a number of professional engineers each year), you must also report it to other state engineering boards in a timely manner. This is to avoid any potential sanction against you for failure of notification.
Records Keeping Requirements for Engineers
While the certificates of achievements are not required for the license renewal online, for auditing purposed the Board requires you to keep records of the professional development hours for a period of three years.
The Board conducts random audits of professional engineers to ensure compliance with continued education activities. If selected for an audit, licensed professional engineers must provide sufficient documentation within 21 days of request.
State Board of Registration for Professional Engineers will accept paper records or digital copies to prove compliance during auditing. This documentation must include the following details:
- Name of the course provider or institution
- Title of the course
- Name of the instructor
- Date the course was completed
- Number of credit hours awarded.
It is therefore paramount to keep a paper or digital copy of certifications for up to three years in a format that is organized and easily retrievable. To make this easy for PDH-Pro course participants, we allow a 24/7 access to our students vie their online account.
Most other course providers will award a certificate of completion (in a paper or digital format) in line with the requirements of the state of Indiana’s CPC.
Please note that receipts of payment or agenda points from seminars without the validating certificate will not be accepted.
Continuing Education Activities Accepted by Indiana
Activities accepted by the Board for the 30 PDH credits can be varied but must be related the practice of the profession. The accepted courses must have a clear purpose and objective and must be relevant to the PE’s area of practice to either maintain, improve upon or extend their skills in their field.
These can include business management, legal courses, ethics, project management or cross-industry collaboration skills among other things, provided it is relevant to the engineer’s field of practice.
Instructors accepted to provide PDH courses must be highly competent in their area of expertise, qualified by their academic and industry experience. Online courses must verify the individual’s learning outcome by an assessment, such as a quiz, in order to qualify for providing a CE approved course.
Online Courses: Almost 85% of Indiana’s licensed PEs earn some or all their PDH credits from online courses. The courses accepted by the Board will need to meet the Indiana continuing education requirements. As long as they are relevant to the engineer’s field of practice, there are no limitations imposed by the Board as to the number of online CE classes available to engineers.
Live Webinars: These learning tools are also very popular with professional engineers, as the format provides and interactive online learning environment, where participants have the opportunity for direct interaction with the instructor. The instructors are subject matter experts and specialists, so the variety of online platforms providing these enjoyable learning experiences are expanding and available widely online. As with online courses, live webinars are accepted by the Board as long as the subject addressed is relevant.
Seminars: There are also a wide variety of in-person learning opportunities that the board will consider as a PDH credit towards license renewal. These could be courses provided by colleges or universities, conference presentations or seminars held by Board approved providers, engineering society or networking meetings with presentations. Any of these can be accepted as a PDD credit, provided that they meet the continuing education general requirements set by the Board.
As documentation must be provided in case of a PDH audit, please check with any seminar, course provider, etc. that they are able to do this before registering with them.
Pre-Approval of Continuing Education Activities
Continuing education course providers must be pre-approved by the Indiana State Board of Registration for Professional Engineers. Indiana is one of only six states that currently does this. This pre-approval however is limited to the organizations and institutes providing the courses, not the course contents. It is therefore up to the professional engineer wishing to renew their license to determine that the activity or course they are wishing to undertake meets the Board requirements. They do not review any courses in advance. To help PEs make this determination, the Board provides its guidelines online.
PDH-Pro is a provider of approved continuing education courses for PEs as licensed by the Indiana Professional Licensing Agency.
Free Continuing Education Courses for IN Engineers
There are number of available free online courses for professional engineers in Indiana. Many professional societies, such as ASME or ASCE include the benefit of free continued educations courses to their members. You may also use issued US patents, published papers in peer-reviewed journals or courses you teach as a PDH credit. These are all accepted by the Board. You can see many of these courses listed on our Free Online PDH Courses For Engineers page.
Complete Engineering Packages for Indiana PEs
To make sure that our courses always meet the Board requirements, PDH-Pro’s team of experts constantly monitor the requirements for license renewals. To offer professional engineers the most convenient license renewal method, we developed our Indiana Engineering Packages that meet all Board requirement in Indiana. The packages are categorized by engineering disciplines, separated into chemical, civil, electrical, environmental, geotechnical, mechanical, and structural. All our courses meet the Board’s CE requirements, so you can focus on the technical training and know that the courses you take with us always form part of your PDH.
Engineering Discipline Restrictions
You may also complete continuing education courses not directly related to your engineering discipline in Indiana, as long as it is contributing to your field of engineering practice. Professional engineering requires a broad understanding of principles, including the fields of chemistry, mathematics, biology, physics and many other technical areas. The Board not only allows, but encourages PEs to improve their practice and competency by expanding into other complementary disciplines.