Shared Vision (April 2005)

My definition of a professional is a competent, educated, ethical, continuously developing person with communication and interpersonal skills, and a holistic perspective. A professional uses innovative approaches, participates in professional associations, and is committed to the pursuit of excellence. It is interesting to note that this definition encapsulates all of SPE’s core values. SPE has always been dedicated to helping members to maintain and upgrade their technical knowledge through our publications, conferences, workshops, and other technical programs. Now we are exploring the opportunity to verify professionalism through a certification program being overseen by the SPE Engineering Professionalism Committee for members in countries where there is no governmental or organizational licensing. Our first step is a pilot program for Petroleum Professional Certification to be conducted in the Middle East. This pilot project stems from requests by members in the Middle East and elsewhere for SPE to offer an internationally recognized certification program for petroleum professionals. A task force was formed in 2003 to study and make recommendations on what SPE’s involvement in certification ought to be. We sought member feedback through focus groups in a number of locations, and a survey was sent to more than 6,200 members to gauge the interest in certification. An astounding 65% of the respondents said they were interested in obtaining SPE certification. With those results in hand, the task force recommended that the SPE Board of Directors establish a certification program under the responsibility of the SPE Engineering Professionalism Committee and establish an SPE Petroleum Professional Certification Subcommittee to compose and maintain the certification examination. The Board approved conduct of a pilot to test the certification process thoroughly. Because of the strong interest demonstrated by members in the Middle East, the pilot examination is planned for February 2006 in Abu Dhabi. SPE certification would mean that a petroleum professional has passed an examination and has met certain minimum requirements that demonstrate both technical knowledge as well as a commitment to ethics. Certification would not be conferred automatically through membership in the Society.