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ABOUT THE PIPELINE ENGINEERING COMPETENCY SYSTEM

About the Pipeline Engineering Competency System

"PECS" – Pipeline Engineering Competency System

The APGA “PECS” – Pipeline Engineering Competency System” is a competency framework specifically for the pipeline industry.

It will assist you, as Pipeline Engineers and Pipeline Industry personnel, to see the full breadth of possible competencies and knowledge you can pursue in the pipeline industry.

There’s no shortage of possibilities!

ACCESS THE PECS DATABASE HERE: PECS Database

The PECS provides for you:

  • A structured way of documenting and assessing competency in the pipeline industry.
  • Consistent elements and a standard format across the competencies, for quick understanding of the requirements
  • Categorisation and separation of competencies for grouping by type, topic, level, area or point in a pipeline’s lifecycle.
  • A clear identification of the requirements of knowledge, experience and expertise for achieving that competency.
  • Description of the roles and responsibilities associated with each competency.
  • Tools and resources to make the competency standards more accessible and useful

The APGA Pipeline Engineering Competency System (PECS) is available for members only. Use of the PECS is under licence. See the copyright statement.

 

Charter in Oil and Gas Pipeline Engineering

Frequently asked questions.

What body formally recognises pipeline engineers in Australia? In Australia, pipeline engineering formal recognition is available through Chartered Professional Engineer status conferred by Engineers Australia. Engineers who attain Charter in Oil & Gas Pipeline Engineering are also included on Engineers Australia’s National Engineering Register. Find out more.
What is the process for becoming a Chartered Oil & Gas Pipeline Engineer? If you are already a Chartered Professional Engineer (CPEng) in another area of practice (e.g. Mechanical, Civil or Chemical), you can apply to Engineers Australia via its website to add the Oil and Gas Pipeline Engineering area of practice. If you are not yet Chartered, you can apply via the Engineers Australia website to become Chartered in Oil and Gas Pipeline Engineering. You will find the Application Guideline on Charter in Oil and Gas Pipeline Engineering, which explains what the eligibility criteria are, there. If you have less than 15 years’ experience and are adopting Engineers Australia’s standard pathway, you will need to complete the APGA Pipeline Engineering Competency Portfolio as part of your application. If you have more that 15 years’ experience and are adopting the CVI (CV and Interview) pathway, you will need to complete the APGA Competency Summary. These are available on the APGA website here, [Check correct link]. Your application will be assessed by the an EA assessor with the support of a member of the Oil and Gas Pipeline Engineering Assessment Panel, which is a body of experienced engineers who are all Chartered as Oil and Gas Pipeline Engineers.
What qualifications and/or experience do I need to become a Chartered Oil and Gas Pipeline Engineer? To become a Chartered Oil and Gas Pipeline Engineer, you must apply for Charter in the Area of Practice of Oil and Gas Pipeline Engineering. Charter as an Oil and Gas Pipeline Engineer is requires significant knowledge and experience which generally over at least 10 years. Find out more about how to become a Chartered Professional Engineer on the Engineers Australia website.
Chartered Oil and Gas Pipeline Engineers will have both a breadth and depth of knowledge, experience and expertise. Breadth of understanding is demonstrated by achieving competency in a set of 16 core competency standards. The core competency standards and the numbers required for each group are listed in the APGA Pipeline Engineering Competency Portfolio and the Competency Summary. Depth of knowledge, experience and expertise is demonstrated by attaining competency in at least 10 elective or specialist competencies, which represent aspects of pipeline engineering that the engineer can take full responsibility. While these do not have to be from a single competency area, they should amount to a coherent, related set of competencies that would enable a pipeline engineer to assume a substantive and responsible role in an organisation. You can search all of the competency standards to help design your career path or make an application using APGA’s PECS database.
What competency standards do I need to become a Chartered Oil and Gas Pipeline Engineer? Is there a minimum? Are there mandatory competencies? There is a minimum number of 16 core competency standards that must be achieved to apply for assessment as a registered Oil and Gas Pipeline Engineer and a requirement to demonstrate a substantial set of elective or specialist competencies: at least 10. While these do not have to be from a single competency area, they should amount to a coherent, related set of competencies that would enable a pipeline engineer to assume a substantive and responsible role in an organisation. There are six mandatory competencies: GE001 Engineering degree in a relevant discipline; GE002 Pipeline engineering fundamentals; IB001 Industry participants and structure; IB002 Introduction to AS 2885; IB003 Related industries; and IB004 Legal frameworks and requirements for pipeline engineers. In addition, an applicant must have 10 of the remaining core competency standards. The core competency standards and the numbers required for each group are listed in the APGA Pipeline Engineer Portfolio and the APGA Competency Summary 
How can I demonstrate that I meet the requirements of the competency standards? Demonstrating that you meet the competency standards requires the collection of evidence over a period of several years. Demonstrating competency will require verification by appropriately qualified people, including senior engineers who have worked with you and your current or previous supervisors. The easiest way to ensure you have the required evidence is to use the APGA Pipeline Engineer Portfolioand add in the evidence and verifications contemporaneously.
How can APGA help me to understand whether I have the required material and evidence to demonstrate competency for Charter? Information on the required competency standards is available in the Engineers Australia Application Guide for Oil and Gas Pipeline Engineering. You can do a rough assessment of whether you have the knowledge and experience required to meet each competency standard by referring to the relevant competency standard in each case. You can collect the evidence and verification of the knowledge and experience in yourAPGA Pipeline Engineer Portfolio Further information on registration is available on the Engineers Australia website which also contains other useful information.
How can APGA help me to understand whether I have the required material and evidenvency for Charter? There is no set period for achieving the competencies required for Charter as this depends on an individual’s work experience and opportunities. However, it is likely to require 10 to 15 years’ experience a pipeline engineer to achieve the necessary competencies.
My experience is mostly in offshore pipelines. Can I still become a Chartered Oil and Gas Pipeline Engineer? There is no set period for achieving the competencies required for Charter as this depends on an individual’s work experience and opportunities. However, it is likely to require 10 to 15 years’ experience a pipeline engineer to achieve the necessary competencies.
How long does Charter take after I have submitted my application? It varies. Further information will be published on this when it is available.
Does it cost anything to obtain Charter? There is an application fee charged to meet the administrative costs of managing the application and an annual fee. These are determined by the Engineers Australia
Why should I become Chartered? Charter as an Oil and Gas Pipeline Engineer means you will be recognised inside and outside the industry as having standing as a reliable, responsible and professional Oil and Gas Pipeline Engineer. Charter enables government, industry and individual consumers to engage the appropriate practitioner or team to perform the required engineering services and to have confidence that engineers who are registered have committed to a code of ethics and to continuing professional development. Public safety is significantly enhanced when only competent practitioners are registered and provide engineering services in critical areas.
How long does Charter last? Does it lapse? Charter lasts as long as you want it to. To maintain Charter, an annual fee is payable together with a commitment to continuing professional development is also a requirement of Charter.
What will happen if I don’t Charter? You can still carry out your work as an Oil and Gas Pipeline Engineer as Charter in Oil and Gas Pipeline Engineering is not an essential requirement. However, many regulatory authorities are showing an increasing interest in requiring registration of engineers. However, registration only applies to a limited set of areas of engineering, which do not include Oil and Gas Pipeline Engineers
When a person becomes Chartered as an Oil and Gas Pipeline Engineer, does their name go on a list that is publicly available? Engineers Australia’s National Engineering Register publishes the names and areas of practice of the engineers.
Isn’t there a lot of overlap between the Engineers Australia competencies and the APGA Competency Standards for Pipeline Engineers? There is potentially a small overlap. The Engineers Australia competencies are generally broad and related to professional standing and capability. The APGA Pipeline Engineer Competency System is related to technical capability in pipeline engineering.
What happens if the competency standards change and become different to those that I became registered under? Charter does not change. It is a requirement of being a professional engineer to ensure you keep up with developments in your profession.

APGA Board statement on Charter in Pipeline Engineer and the APGA Pipeline Engineer Competency System

The Australian Pipelines and Gas Association (APGA) Board recognises that the high standard of engineering capability in the Australian pipeline industry has been a key contributor to the success and good safety record of the industry.  Accordingly, it is committed to ensuring the high quality of Australia’s pipeline engineers endures into the future. To underwrite this commitment, APGA has developed the competency system for pipeline engineers which includes two comprehensive sets of competency standards for pipeline engineers: one for those engaged in the onshore sector and one for pipeline engineers working in the offshore sector.

The APGA Pipeline Engineer Competency System creates a framework for understanding competency and a means of assessing and documenting competency for pipeline engineers. Each competency standard clearly identifies the knowledge, experience and expertise required to achieve competency and outlines the roles and responsibilities that a pipeline engineer will be able to undertake after achieving competency.

The competency system has been developed by panels of industry experts and reviewed by acknowledged leaders in their fields. As such, it represents the considered view of the pipeline industry as to what is required for the broad range of competencies across the areas in which a pipeline engineer might be involved. In addition to steel pipelines the competencies cover plastics pipe (including polyethylene) and composites pipe.

The APGA Board is committed to ensuring that the APGA Pipeline Engineer Competency System is widely recognised and adopted as the industry standard for defining and recognising pipeline engineering expertise. Therefore, the Board strongly encourages the members of the association to implement the competency system. The system is the basis for members’ career planning, skills assessment for individuals and teams for performance assessment and project planning, for planning training and designing courses, for recruitment, and to plan pipeline engineer staff rotations. They are also an essential guide to assessing competency for decision-makers as required by the industry standard, AS 2885.

Engineers Australia has recognised that pipeline engineering is highly specialised and has created a new area for national registration of Oil and Gas Pipeline Engineering. The APGA Pipeline Engineer Competency System is the basis of assessment for this registration, for both onshore and offshore pipeline engineers.

The APGA Board believes that Chartered status in the area of practice of Oil and Gas Pipeline Engineering through Engineers Australia should be a career goal of all pipeline engineers in our industry, and we encourage all member companies to introduce processes that will eventually lead to their engineers becoming registered.

The Australian pipeline industry is often ahead of trends and industry developments. In the case of the competency standards, we have an opportunity to ensure our industry remains ahead of the world when it comes to education and training – and recognition – of our highly skilled engineers.

We would like to thank the pipeline engineers who have started the trend and have already Chartered and we look forward to the announcement by the Secretariat of many more.

APGA Board

 

© Australian Pipelines and Gas Association Ltd 2020.

Copyright

Copyright of the Competency System, its components and the explanatory material is owned by the Australian Pipelines and Gas Association Ltd.  

You may print or reproduce this material in whole or in part for your personal, non-commercial use or use within your organisation, provided you acknowledge APGA as the source.  

Except for any use permitted by the Copyright Act 1968 or APGA, all other rights are reserved. You must not copy, adapt, publish, distribute or sell this material without the permission of APGA. 

 

Using the Competency System 

APGA’s Pipeline Engineering Competency System (PECS) has been developed for the use of its members who represent the broad spectrum of the pipeline industry.  There is a range of uses for the system that are directed to training and developing the pipeline engineering capability within the industry. 

Members that wish to adopt and incorporate the PECS into their own competency systems must identify the relevant PECS as “© Australian Pipelines and Gas Association Ltd 2020” and acknowledge APGA as the source.  

If you wish to use the PECS as part of training courses you offer on a commercial basis to external parties, other than for designing the courses, you must first obtain APGA’s consent. Modification of the content of the individual competencies is not permitted unless specifically licensed by APGA. 

The Competency Standards will be revised periodically so that they remain current and fit for use. APGA welcomes member comments regarding additions or changes to the Standards. Please contact the Chair of the PECS Committee via apga@apga.org.au 

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