The Value of the REA Qualification in New Zealand

The REA qualification provides considerable value to the public, the recipient, employers and the New Zealand economy.

Public Benefits | Personal Interest | Employer Interest | A Powerful Employment Tool

Public Benefits

Members of the public requiring technical engineering services are, generally, not well informed or able to make assessments about the competence and abilities of technician engineers. The widely recognised statutory based Registered Engineering Associate credential offers the public and employers with significant assurance about the abilities and experience of an individual.

Personal Interest

These days there are few occupations or technical engineering areas of activity where any particular qualification confers any degree of statutory authority or exclusivity. The REA credential is not a license, however some industry sectors or company structures require the equivalence of REA for employee promotion or progression as a senior technical engineer. These industry groups include civil engineering, concrete manufacture, gas, electrical and controls, and some mechanical engineering applications.

In an increasingly fluid employment situation, technician engineers are finding that the REA credential is a very useful qualification that is a significant help in their career development. It is also a very portable qualification. It provides a widely recognisable, stable, benchmark, clearly conferring a competency preference by some employers. It also enhances peer recognition of the holder's skills and abilities.

Employer Interest

In an increasingly deregulated era, the proliferation of "education provider" qualifications is making it harder for employers to compare potential staff abilities. They have to assess whether the academic content of a qualification for a technologist is really relevant to their engineering needs or just sounds like engineering, and they also have to assess the level of practical competence a candidate has achieved in industry.

Technical engineering competence in employees below REA standards will suffice for routine technical and engineering activities, but higher levels of quality supervision may be required in engineering activity fields such as design, production, operation, maintenance or sales. REA qualified staff often provide the supervisory functions for these activities.

The REA qualification provides clear areas of value to employers:

• It confirms proficiency based on actual experience, in addition to the competency represented by academic or training qualifications.
  
• It carries a message of competence to most technical employers and their customers.
  
• It recognises and encourages staff to achieve a higher quality of technical engineering competency.
  
• It assists smaller employers with technical staff selection.
  
• It assists organisations engage technical engineers for specified services.

The REA qualification has a significant head start in terms of reputation within the engineering workforce. There are many thousands of REAs working in management and technical engineering supervisory roles in the New Zealand economy.

REA – A Powerful Employment Tool

In an era of changing engineering qualifications, and a shortage of technical engineers, employers can retain confidence in the REA (Registered Engineering Associate) credential that has stood the test of over 40 years of statutory recognition. The REA credential confirms engineering competency to a demanding standard.

REAs are technical engineers who have

• been independently assessed for their technical engineering competency
• a high level of technical engineering achievement
• a high level of proficiency and competence
• a high reputation among the engineering workforce
• engineering supervisory experience
• followed a career path that includes technical engineer education, experience and supervisory skills.

The REA credential offers employers:

• public assurance about the abilities and experience of the individual
• an independent, transparent and reliable time tested assessment of character and technological competence by a statutory process of critical peer review
• evidence that the individual will provide an essential link in the engineering group structure for knowledge transfer between engineering professionals and the trades staff
• a ‘quality mark’ which allows delegation of responsibility within a competency framework
• recognition that they offer staff career paths that encourage technical engineer education, experience and supervision
• a tool to assist with industry succession planning

In a time where it has become harder for employers to determine the most appropriate technical engineering qualification to encourage their staff to achieve, the REA continues to stand alone as an indication that the individual is a senior qualified and experienced member of the engineering profession.

Awarded under the Engineering Associates Act 1961, the statutory REA credential is a respected technical engineering qualification that has achieved national and international recognition. REA is a valuable tool for employers in establishing job specifications in selecting staff for all technical engineering disciplines.

Employers use the REA as a benchmark credential for the employment of technical engineers, enhancing their ability to apply the differing engineering skill level resources to best advantage in line with the long established three tier structure of the engineering group.

REA confirms an essential level of management ability where there is significant risk of possible serious harm to life or property. These risks are ever present in works involving infra-structure services, transport and roading, civil and structural construction integrity, buildings environmental systems, supply of energy, communications and control, health sector engineering services, marine, and aviation engineering. Employment of competence as signalled by the REA credential can result in savings in insurance mitigation and litigation costs.

To offer employers additional assurance of continuing technical engineering competency, the Engineering Associates Registration Board is encouraging REAs to join a new voluntary competency assessed practitioner (REAcap) scheme. This requires REAs to sign a Code of Ethics and provide evidence that they are continuing to maintain technical currency and competency. This validation is repeated every four years, and the REAcap validated engineers are recorded under the List of REAs.