Free PDH Courses for Professional Engineers

Professional engineers in 42 states must earn professional development hours (PDH), also known as continuing education units (CEUs), during each license renewal cycle. There are a lot of options available that satisfy the various licensing board requirements, including live seminars, online courses, webinars, and college courses. Most of these alternatives cost money which can add up to a significant expense for PEs. Fortunately, there are some free engineering pdh courses that can help keep your expenses under control.

PEs can earn free PDH credits in a variety of ways. Sources of free engineering courses include promotions from continuing education providers, lunch-and-learn sessions with manufacturers, and membership benefits from engineering societies. Some state engineering boards also provide free training.

Fortunately, there are free PDH courses that engineers can incorporate in their training program to save money. The key is knowing how to access them.

Free Engineering Continuing Education

One option for free CUE credits is to take advantage of promotions from online course providers. PDH Pro offers free continuing ed courses to professional engineers as a way to evaluate the quality of our classes.  You have two options for free continuing education credits with us.

1. Free On-Demand Engineering Webinar.

PDH-Pro posted a free On-Demand Webinar on YouTube as a way to allow PEs to evaluate on-demand courses (click here for the free webinar). On-demand webinars are recorded versions of the live courses. They are accepted by most Engineering Boards, although some states require a certain number of live and interactive courses.

This free engineering webinar is about groundwater and soil remediation and is taught by subject matter expert Mike Penzo.

Free Engineering Webinar – Groundwater and Soil Remediation

For more information about this On-Demand Webinar, check out the course description here. If you are looking for free engineering webinars with certificates, you may have to wait for a promotional offer from an online continuing education provider or join an engineering society that offers free CE.

2. Free Online Professional Development Hours for Engineers

PDH-Pro offers a free online engineering course with certificate of completion for professional engineers through a promotional initiative. To claim a free course, simply sign up. Click here for a Free PDH Course on engineering ethics and professional conduct.

By signing up for this free course, you can earn one PDH credit. This offer includes a certificate of completion once you complete the class. The certificate serves as your record to demonstrate to your engineering licensing board that you have met the continuing education requirements. We maintain a copy of your records for 10 years and you can access them anytime by simply logging in to your account.

With this 1-Hour, FREE engineering PDH Course, you can earn professional continuing education hours online, and evaluate our courses. This course covers ethics and professional conduct.

Convert Your Firm’s Training Program to PDH Credits

PDH-Pro has a unique offering that allows engineers to earn continuing education credit by participating in their firm’s in-house training program. Our approach makes it simple.

1. We review your training program to ensure it meets the state engineering board and NCEES requirements.
2. We identify any deficiencies and work with you to bring the training up to standards.
3. We provide all required documentation, generate certificates of completion, and maintain records as required.

We spend a significant amount of time reviewing each state engineering board’s rules and regulations to ensure our courses meet their continuing professional competency requirements. This investment of time allows us to quickly and easily evaluate your firm’s  training program to ensure it meets your state engineering board’s requirements. If it doesn’t, we identify the deficiencies and work with you to bring the training up to standards.

We make it easy for your engineering professionals to earn continuing education credit by participating in your firm’s training program.

Learn more about this great program – call us at 508-298-4787.

Free PDH Courses for Civil Engineers

If you are a civil engineer, you have a few options for free engineering courses to choose from.

The American Society of Civil Engineers gives new member 10 courses for free when they join. When you become a member of ASCE, you can take 10 recorded webinars, each worth 1 PDH. This is a very generous deal if you’re already a member or are considering joining. Dues for licensed engineers are $245 per year. This breaks down to $24.50 per hour of credit, which is a little higher than the industry average.

Check your state boards restrictions, because not every board accepts recorded webinars – most do, but New York, Ohio, Wisconsin, and Nebraska have restrictions and additional limits. We prepared a list of all state requirements (click here to review them). If you do your homework, you can find free online civil engineering courses with certificates.

We prepared a comprehensive article about continuing education requirements and strategies for civil engineers (read the article here).

Free Continuing Education Courses for Electrical Engineers

We identified several sources of free PDH credits and courses for electrical engineers. Here are three of the best offerings.

1. EdX

EdX is a great resource for anyone looking for free online learning opportunities from from top universities like MIT. They currently have 25 free continuing education courses for electrical engineers.

2. Coursera

Coursera is an online course provider. They have courses for electrical engineers as well as certificate programs.Many of their courses must be purchased, but they also have several free PDH credits for electrical engineers.

3. Free Study

The website freestudy.com has 10 free courses for electrical engineers.

Learn more about continuing education requirements for electrical engineers  by reading our article.

Engineering Societies Offer Free Online Continuing Education

The National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE) offers 15 free courses to its members. Their courses can be completed online, and they require participants to pass an exam to receive a certificate of completion. NSPE has taken the time to ensure their courses are accepted by Florida and New York – two states that require course provider approval. If you’re registered in either of these states, this is a great benefit.

In addition to the National Organization, many state branches of the NSPE provide free continuing education opportunities. For example, the New York branch hosts an annual conference with a variety of technical presentations that are free to attendees. Many of these sessions are approved by the New York board for continuing education credit. Conferences like this are a great way to network with other professional engineers while earning your CEU credits.

Free Ethics Webinar for Texas Professional Engineers

The Texas Board of Professional Engineers (TBPE) provides free ethics webinars to any PE who is interested. Texas engineers must earn 15 PDH credits every year, and at least 1 hour must be on the topic of ethics. These free webinars satisfy the Texas ethics requirement. The presentations are given by TBPE members and cover topics such as TBPE activities, disciplinary hearing case studies, and professional ethics.

We put together a comprehensive summary of the Texas continuing education requirements (read it here).

Attend Lunch and Learns

Many manufacturers representatives offer free training sessions right in your office. Typically referred to as “lunch and learns”, these free events allow you to join other engineers and learn about new products and services in your industry. To qualify as continuing education, the presentations must be focused on technology challenges that engineers may encounter. Generally speaking, marketing-focused discussions and product presentations are not accepted as credit by most state engineering boards. Many engineers find these brown bag sessions to be a great opportunity to ask questions, learn something new, and get lunch in the process.

Read our article on how to run an effective lunch and learn training event for your engineering staff.

The Bottom Line on Free Engineering PDH Courses

Professional engineers have a lot of options for free continuing education. Many course providers offer free courses as a way for prospective customers to evaluate their program – including PDH Pro. Many engineering societies offer continuing education, and several provide a few hours for free. In addition, a few state engineering boards offer free courses on state engineering laws and engineering ethics.

Remember. Just because a course is free is no reason to accept lower quality. Your time is valuable, and even a free or discounted continuing education course should be worthwhile. (Read our suggestions for what to look for in online training courses).