NINE UST Industrial Engineering (IE) professors were inducted to the first batch of Professional Industrial Engineers (PIE) in the country by the Certification Board of the Philippine Institute of Industrial Engineers (PIIE) last March 8 at the Mandarin Hotel, Makati City.
UST professors Charmina Bautista, Charlie Marquez, Consuelo Meneses, Donell Reyes, new Letran-Calamba College of Engineering dean Delfin Jacob, IE department chair and former Varsitarian editor Carlos Lugay, assistant to the Rector for research and development Marilyn Mabini, executive assistant of the office of planning and development Joehanna Ngo, and social research center director Nancy Eleria successfully met the required achievement points to earn Level 2 or the PIE certification.
Like a board examination, the certification is recognized by the Professional Regulations Commission (PRC) but is independently conducted by the PIIE.
“Since IE does not have a board exam, the certification serves as feather in our cap and adds credibility to us as practitioners of the field,” Lugay told the Varsitarian.
However, Lugay clarified that IE faculty members and graduates are not obliged to secure the said certification.
“It aims to give the practitioner an advantage over graduates, since certifications like these are also acknowledged abroad,” he said. “We also become specialists of IE.”
However, IE graduates must first meet the necessary requirements before reaching Level 2. Level 1 practitioners exhibit the minimum standard of competency for IE, while those belonging to Level 2 are considered experts of specific fields like Production & Manufacturing Systems, Operations Research, Human Factors and Ergonomics, and Quality Engineering.
Lugay said that a newly graduate must first pass Level 1 and become a Certified Industrial Engineer (CIE) before being eligible to take the PIE exam. As in the case of the nine professors, they only needed to submit their updated resumes bearing their achievements in the field of IE and meet the required number of points for them to be certified.
“There is an application process called the “Grandfather Rule” that the organization suggests. For accomplished industrial engineers, they would only need to pass a copy of their affiliations, achievements and current positions whose points will be determined by the organization,” he said. “If you pass the “Grandfather Rule,” it means you also passed the certain grade or point requirement for PIE and no longer needs to take the exam.”
However, the Grandfather Rule is given only twice to an applicant. Failure to meet the necessary 50-point benchmark for the second time would require the applicant to take the CIE and PIE exams.
More than 150 IE practitioners qualified in the first batch of PIE in the country, including the nine UST professors. The second batch will be announced later this year.
“We encourage our graduates to take the exam and be certified. It will help them build credibility and become experts of IE,” Lugay said.
