Structural PDHs 3

[WARose]

It's (once again) that time of year where I am scrambling for PDH hours. (Along with a lot of other people.)

I was wondering: any good sources out there for PDH hours? As it stands now, I typically get mine from pdhonline.com, ASCE, and AISC. But I am always looking for new (and cheap) sources. Someone who gives live webinars would be good too.

 

[kipfoot]

Also ACI at concrete.org is a good choice. Less expensive than ASCE and more worthwhile than PDHonline.

and New York has a free online ethics PDH at their site

 

[WARose]

Are your jurisdictions that fussy about checking for PDHs?

Some states I am in randomly audit.

My jurisdiction just has a box you tick: "Declared PDH compliant" yes, no, or prefer not to say.

Most of the states I am in have something similar. Except there is no "prefer not to say".

An old boss of mine, who's design manuals were from the 1980's, who never attended a single seminar, and who threw his hands up at seismic design methods outlined in the building codes and called it "the fancy stuff you younger guys are doing" would tick "prefer not to say", and enclose a cheque for a few hundred bucks to the benevolent fund. He never had any issues.

Not sure what happens if you tick "no" though.

In the states I am in....you will be looking at issues at renewal. Eventually your license will be suspended if you fail to fulfill the CEU requirement.

 

[JedClampett]

The continuing education requirements should be looked at as a way to raise the professional status of the engineering profession. You wouldn't want a doctor or dentist who never tried to learn new techniques and treatments beyond medical or dental school, would you? So they're required to go to seminars to keep their licenses. Sometimes the seminars are on cruise ships with a unlimited buffet, but if you wanted that, you should of went to medical school.
So the engineering profession has come up with a somewhat non intrusive way to say we're advancing our technical knowledge. Basically, they pretend to ask for further education, and we pretend to get it. I've used lunchtime presentations by vendors (I actually learn quite a bit from them), discipline group meetings and preparing presentations to the office for PDH credits. On rare occasions, I go to 8 hour ACI seminars. I work for a pretty big company, but I understand that not everyone has access to as many opportunities to earn PDH's as I do. But that doesn't stop me from attending Hilti or Skyline free webinars.
I've been audited several times, so ignore this at your own risk. I have to keep records, which is a pain, but try going through an audit without them.

 

[XR250]

If I worked for a big company, i would be all over getting as many PDH's as needed. I am self employed and at the end of the day, a $400 all day seminar will cost me $1,600 in lost revenue. Let's see, new motorcycle suspension or a boring seminar that will likely have no impact on my career.... PDHonline it is.

 

[TehMightyEngineer]

@XR250: I understand and obviously there is a cost-benefit to everything. However, I imagine there are some ways you can find less wasteful PDHs than a "boring seminar". For example, Josh had a great point of using things like software training or similar as PDH credits. I did this for my first ever license renewal; we has just purchased some non-linear FEA software and boss sent me to a 2 day seminar to learn the non-linear aspects and bring that knowledge back to the company. Got almost all my PDH hours done in those 2 days and we easily made up the lost revenue in faster adoption of the new software.

Obviously this can't be practically achieved every 2 years but I'm sure many times you can find PDHs that the lost time can be made up with seminars that provide greater efficiency and general self-improvement in your field. As a younger engineer I have a number of topics I've thought of that I want to audit a university course on or take a seminar on that would greatly improve my value to my company and simultaneously fulfill much of my PDH requirements in the near or far future.

Professional Engineer (ME, NH, MA) Structural Engineer (IL)
American Concrete Industries

https://www.facebook.com/AmericanConcrete/

 

[XR250]

@TMH,

I appreciate the advice.

 

[JStephen]

The "farce" is about 3/4 true in my experience. The boards have mandated continuing education, but they haven't made any effort to make worthwhile continuing education available themselves, or to determine if it was available elsewhere. So if something's out there and you find it, great. And if not, you're stuck spending time and money on something of no real benefit because the board didn't do their homework before making that rule.

My impression is that the more mainstream your work is, the easier it is to find courses related to it; it's not uniform in all topics.

 

[SethGuthrie]

Adding to the comments from JoshPlum and TehMightyEngineer, Bentley Institute also offers PDH.

To review your Bentley Transcript/Learning History, go to

http://learn.bentley.com/app/Public.

There, you can self-report your professional development efforts to the respective organization, licensing board, or professional association. Requirements may vary and acceptance of Bentley Institute PDHs is ultimately at the discretion of the those organizations. Bentley recommends that you confirm board or association terms and conditions.

Also agree with MrHershey that SE University is good.

 

[Bagman2524]

I use

http://www.pdhcenter.com

and sometimes

http://www.pdhengineer.com.

All I know is P/A and Mc/I