For a Systems Engineering Professional certification to remain valid, it must be renewed every three years. Renewal requires confirmation of attaining 120 professional development units (PDUs) of continuing education requirements during the prior three years.

The requirement for continuing professional competency (CPC) is intended to reinforce the need for lifelong learning in order to stay current with changing technology, equipment, procedures, processes, and established standards. Certified Systems Engineering Professionals (CSEPs) are encouraged to select meaningful CPC courses/activities which will be of benefit in the pursuit of their chosen areas. The definition of Course/Activity is: "Any qualifying course or activity with a clear purpose and objective which will maintain, improve, or expand skills and knowledge relevant to the CSEP’s area of expertise."

Deferments from the continuing education requirements for hardship reasons, such as extended periods of illness, must be submitted in writing to the Certification Program Manager for a decision. If you apply for a hardship deferment, your supporting documentation must specify the time period for meeting the continuing education requirements and must be included with your renewal form and is a part of the material covered by your signed affidavit.

Activities for Earning PDU Credits

General Requirements:
All activities for which PDU credits are claimed must be relevant to the practice of systems engineering and may include technical, ethical, or managerial content. These activities should advance the professional or technical competence of the CSEP.

Qualifying CPC activities may be sponsored or presented by college or universities, by employers, by government agencies, by nationally affiliated engineering or professional societies (such as INCOSE), or by other organizations. The American Society of Engineering Education, ASEE, a nonprofit organization committed to continuing engineering education, has an online resource that may help you locate continuing education courses across many engineering disciplines. You may find links there to online courses, video courses, evening courses, or weekend courses offered by U.S. engineering schools and professional societies.

The Certification Program Manager does not pre-approve courses for PDU credit. It is each CSEP’s responsibility to assure that the activities in which you participate meet the requirements.

A PDU credit is roughly equivalent to one clock hour of instruction and should be rounded to the nearest half hour.

Typical Qualifying Activities:
Completing or attending qualifying courses, seminars, instruction, in-house programs, or training; attending technical or professional society meetings when an engineering topic is presented as a principal part of the program and covers topics within your area of practice; teaching a course for the first time or if substantial time has been spent in updating material if previously taught; attending satellite video courses where attendance is verified and program material meets the requirements; and language courses or software instructional courses which relate to improvement of one's business or profession.

Typical Non-Qualifying Activities:
Regular employment; personal estate and financial planning; courses in self-study or personal self-improvement; service club meetings or activities; equipment demonstrations or trade shows; topics not relevant to engineering; enrollment without attendance in courses or seminars, etc.; and repetitive teaching of the same course without updating the course material; attending committee and business meetings of any non-technical organization; conversational language courses for personal use.

PDU Credits Carried Forward:
If more than 120 PDU credits are earned in a triennial period for re-certification, then a maximum of 30 PDUs may be carried forward into the next triennial period for certified systems engineers.

Credits Disallowed Upon Certification Program Office Audit:
A certification will not be renewed unless the CSEP certifies on the application renewal form that the courses/activities listed on the log of continuing education meet the minimum requirements for PDU units. If the Certification Program Office Manager determines that some credits are unacceptable, the CSEP will have 180 days to obtain PDU units that are acceptable. If the CSEP has not obtained the requisite PDUs after 180 days, the certificate will be revoked until such time as the units are obtained.

Forms - Record keeping - Documentation:
Each CSEP should maintain a summary log that lists his/her PDU activities. The log should contain the CSEP’s certification number, activity, dates performed, source of activity, description of activity, location, and PDU value. Form 13 is provided for this purpose.

It is important that sufficient name and/or description be given to identify that the activity relates to systems engineering, including the presenter's name. The name of the sponsoring organization must be provided as well as the location of where the instruction, session, or class was held. For classes that are part of a college curriculum, please list the class number.

Submit your summary log of continuing education with your renewal form and fee. Material, such as detailed course descriptions and certificates of completion, may be requested to check the quality of the courses/activities on the log of continuing education. The Certification Program Manager will audit a randomly selected percentage (actual number to be determined but probably about 10%) of all renewals to ensure the quality of courses/activities and compliance with CPC requirements. When random audits are done, they will be completed as part of the renewal reviews. If you are selected for audit, you will be contacted to provide the necessary documentation.

All records of attendance and completion of PDU credits should be maintained for four years for audit purposes.