Only individuals, not companies, can apply for registration as a professional engineer and for endorsement of their registration to work as a professional engineer in the building industry.
Eligibility for registration and endorsement
To be eligible for registration you must meet the qualification and experience requirements or competency requirements for each of the areas of engineering in which you wish to apply for registration.
These eligibility requirements plus an additional requirement also apply to endorsement of engineers registration to work in the building industry.
Qualification requirements
You must have completed one of the following qualifications.
- A Washington Accord accredited under-graduate Bachelor of Engineering degree or post-graduate Master of Engineering degree in the area or areas of engineering in which you wish to apply for registration and endorsement, if required, for example in:
- fire safety engineering
- civil engineering
- structural engineering
- electrical engineering
- mechanical engineering, or
- a related area of engineering.
or
- A Washington Accord accredited under-graduate Bachelor of Engineering degree or post-graduate Master of Engineering degree in the area or areas of engineering in which you wish to apply for registration and endorsement, if required, for example in:
- civil engineering
- structural engineering
- electrical engineering
- mechanical engineering, or
- a related area of engineering.
plus
An under-graduate or post-graduate level qualification specialising in fire safety engineering offered by an Australian or overseas university. Note: this qualification pathway is exclusively for fire safety engineers.
or
- An Australian or overseas non-Washington Accord academic qualification in a relevant area or areas of engineering (fire safety, civil, structural, , electrical, mechanical related area of engineering) that has been assessed as substantially equivalent to an accredited Washington Accord under-graduate Bachelor of Engineering degree or a post-graduate Master of Engineering degree by:
- the signatory to the Washington Accord 1989 for the country where the qualification was obtained, or
- an approved Australian migration assessing authority.
Experience requirements
Amount of experience
You must have five years of experience working in the relevant area or areas of engineering in which you wish to apply for registration, and endorsement if you intend to work in the building industry. At least four years must be post-graduate experience.
To apply for registration as a practising professional engineer, your experience must have been gained in the last 10 years.
A shorter period of experience may be accepted if you have met certain competencies and requirements and are assessed as competent by an assessment entity to provide professional engineering services without direct supervision.
Nature of experience
You must have demonstrated competency in the following five elements from the ‘Australian Engineering Competency Standards Stage 2: Experienced Professional Engineer’ in the relevant area or areas of engineering:
- Element 1 – Deal with ethical issues
- Element 2 – Practice competently
- Element 4 – Develop safe and sustainable solutions
- Element 6 – Identify, assess and manage risks, and
- Element 13 – Engineering knowledge – according to their area of practice including a knowledge of standards and practices.
Endorsement to practise in the building industry
To apply for endorsement to practise as a professional engineer in the building industry, you must also have demonstrated knowledge and practical application of:
- Victorian building laws and standards, and
- the operation and use of the National Construction Code as it applies to the relevant area or areas of engineering.
Competency requirements
This is an alternative to the qualification and experience requirements for eligibility for registration and endorsement, if required.
You must be certified by:
- a signatory to the Washington Accord 1989, or
- a member of the International Engineering Alliance competency agreements for professional engineers, or
- an entity licensed by a signatory to the Washington Accord 1989 and otherwise satisfactory to the Business Licensing Authority (BLA),
- as having demonstrated substantial equivalence in the competencies and outcomes of:
- a Washington Accord undergraduate Bachelor of Engineering degree or postgraduate Master of Engineering degree, and
- the experience competencies.
Assessment schemes
For further details on the qualification, experience and competency requirements under an assessment scheme, view Public record of assessment entities.
Civil aviation safety engineers
The qualification, experience and competency requirements do not apply to civil aviation engineers.
If you are a civil aviation safety engineer, you are eligible for registration if you have been appointed by the Civil Aviation Safety Authority as an authorised person under the Commonwealth Civil Aviation Safety Regulations 1998.
Ineligibility
You are ineligible to be registered and endorsed if you are:
- disqualified from registration or have had your registration cancelled in Victoria or another state or territory
- a represented person under the Guardianship and Administration Act 1986, or
- not a ‘fit and proper person’ to provide professional engineering services.
To decide whether you are a ‘fit and proper person’ to provide professional engineering services in an area of engineering, the BLA may take into account whether you:
- have been convicted or found guilty in Victoria or elsewhere in the last 10 years of:
- an indictable offence (for information, view the Spent convictions page)
- an offence under a state, territory or Commonwealth law regulating to the provision of professional engineering services
- have been suspended under the Professional Engineers Registration Act 2019 or Commonwealth, state or territory law registering engineers to practise, and the reasons for that suspension
- are or have been insolvent under administration or the officer of an externally administered company (see the definition of 'officer') under the Commonwealth Corporations Act 2001, and
- have failed to comply with an order of a Victorian, Commonwealth, state or territory court or tribunal.
Endorsement to work in the building industry
If you apply for endorsement of your registration to practise as a registered professional engineer in the building industry, the BLA will refer your application to the Victorian Building Authority for a report on whether you are a fit and proper person under the Building Act 1993.
Fit and proper persons under the Building Act 1993
To decide whether you are a ‘fit and proper person’, the VBA will consider whether you:
- in the last 10 years (whether you were in Victoria or outside Victoria):
- have been convicted or found guilty of any offence involving fraud, dishonesty, drug trafficking or violence that was punishable by imprisonment for 6 months or more
- have been convicted or found guilty of an offence under any law regulating building work or building practitioners
- have had any registration, licence, approval, certificate or other type of authorisation as a building practitioner suspended or cancelled for any reason other than your failure to renew this authorisation
- have been convicted or found guilty of an offence* involving:
- misleading conduct in relation to goods or services; or
- false or misleading representation in relation to goods or services; or
- bait advertising; or
- accepting payment without intending or being able to provide services or goods; or
- harassment or coercion in connection to goods, services, payment of goods or services or the sale, grant (or possible sale or grant) of interest in land, or payment for interest in land.
* Offences as defined in the following legislation:
Fair Trading Act 1999 – section 10, 11, 12, 17, 19 or 21
Trade Practices Act 1974 (Cth) – section 53, 55, 55A, 56, 58 or 60
Australian Consumer Law (Victoria) – section 29, 33, 34, 35, 36, 50, 151, 157, 158 or 168
Schedule 2 of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth) – section 29, 33, 34, 35, 36, 50, 151, 157, 158 or 168
- in the last 10 years a court or the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) subjected you to an order that has not been complied with within the period required by the court or VCAT, where the order was issued under:
- the Building Act 1993 or regulations under that Act; or
- the Domestic Building Contracts Act 1995 or the regulations under that Act.
- an insolvent under administration
- an externally administered body corporate within the meaning of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth);
- are or have been disqualified from managing corporations under Part 2D.6 of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth)
- have had an insurer ever decline, cancel, or impose special conditions on any indemnity insurance or public liability insurance related to your work as a building practitioner in Victoria or in an equivalent building occupation in another State or Territory
- personally or as company director, have any outstanding judgment debt:
- for amounts recoverable by an insurer under a policy of insurance for domestic building work (referred to in section 137A or 137B of the Building Act 1993) that has not been satisfied within the period required to do so; or
- owed to the Victorian Building Authority as a debt due under this Act that has not been satisfied within the period required to do so; or
- in relation to a domestic building dispute that has not been satisfied within the period required to do so.
- have performed any of the following roles for a company (or companies) within two years of that company (or companies) going into external administration?
- Director
- Secretary
- Influential person (a person who is in a position to control or substantially influence the company's conduct).
Regulatory bodies
The Business Licensing Authority (BLA) is the government body responsible for:
- considering and deciding applications for registration (and endorsement of engineers registration to work in the building industry)
- renewing registration every three years, and
- approving assessment schemes and the entities that administer those schemes.
The Victorian Building Authority (VBA) is the government body responsible for:
- providing a recommendation to the BLA on whether an applicant is a fit and proper person to have their registration endorsed to work in the building industry, and
- considering and deciding annual endorsement statements for endorsed building engineers.
Definition of ‘officer’ under the Corporations Act 2001
Section 9 of the Commonwealth Corporations Act 2001 defines ‘officer’ as:-
officer of a corporation means:
(a) a director or secretary of the corporation; or
(b) a person:
(i) who makes, or participates in making, decisions that affect the whole, or a substantial part, of the business of the corporation; or
(ii) who has the capacity to affect significantly the corporation's financial standing; or
(iii) in accordance with whose instructions or wishes the directors of the corporation are accustomed to act (excluding advice given by the person in the proper performance of functions attaching to the person's professional capacity or their business relationship with the directors or the corporation); or
(c) a receiver, or receiver and manager, of the property of the corporation; or
(d) an administrator of the corporation; or
(e) an administrator of a deed of company arrangement executed by the corporation; or
(f) a liquidator of the corporation; or
(g) a trustee or other person administering a compromise or arrangement made between the corporation and someone else.