Rorke Alix

Project Manager and Student in United State

Q: What is Continuing Education?

Almost all US States have made it mandatory for licensed professionals to take continuing education courses as one of the requirements for renewing their license. Some State Boards call these courses Professional Development Hours or PDH courses. Some State Boards refer to them as Continuing Education courses or CE courses. For example, State Boards of Engineers call their courses engineering PDH courses. State Boards of Contractors call them Contractors CE courses. There is no difference between PDH and CE. It is more of a preference of word or phrase. All PDH and CE hours require a minimum of 50 minutes of studying time.

Q: What are engineering continuing education courses?

Engineering continuing education courses are the courses taken by the licensed PE Professional Engineers to renew their professional engineering licenses.

Q: What is the difference between engineering continuing education PDH courses and engineering continuing education CE courses?

The term PDH stands for Professional Development Hour and CE stands for Continuing Education. They mean the same thing and are used interchangeably. Both abbreviations are used by different States. The term CE has been used for many other fields for continuing education. State Boards of Contractors, Architects, Land Surveyors, Geologists, and Interior Designers mostly use the term CE for their continuing education hours and requirements.

Q: What are PDH courses for engineers?

PDH courses for engineers are courses that a PE Professional Engineer needs to take in order to renew his or her license annually or biannually.

Q: Can we obtain CE credit or PDH credit for PDH courses academically?

Yes, taking college semester courses in the appropriate technical fields can be count as PDH or CE courses. Each State has different rules to how many hours each college course would be credited for. The PE engineer should review the Rules and Laws of the State(s) in which he or she is a PE Professional Engineer to find out the equivalency of a college semester course to the number of PDH or CE continuing education that he or she will receive.