Professional Qaulifications versus Academic Degree

There are several universities that have degrees in welding from bachelor to doctorate and that include less well known weld techniques (to the general public) such as laser, electron beam, and friction stir welding. Ohio State is one such school. Most companies who perform specialist welding tend to have their own internal training programs.

Incidentally Ohio State has a DL Masters in welding:
Welding Engineering | College of Engineering

In the UK a well recognized professional qualification is membership in the Welding Institute - the top level (C.Eng) being similar to PE in the USA

 

And what is welding engineering?

 

Some folks call it ‘materials joining’ but here is a general description of the field:
Materials Joining Engineering (MJE) is a hybrid discipline that combines the fundamental principles of materials, mechanical, structural and electrical engineering, adapting them to the development and application of joining technology. This includes materials selection, characterization and weldability assessment, procedure development and qualification, process automation and control, as well as the design, inspection, analysis and testing of joined structures and components.
Materials joining engineers invent new, safer and more efficient processes, create engineering specifications, and contribute to the performance and integrity of everything from consumer products to space vehicles.
Materials Joining Engineering | School of Engineering and Engineering Technology | LeTourneau University

 

To add to the discussion, I have seen many UK Universities offering what I could call vocational masters courses - example - MSc Networking Professional (incorporating Cisco certificate training) Full-time, Part-time course | Sheffield Hallam University. Check out the requirements for entry

You should have a good honours degree in computing or a related discipline such as communications or electronic engineering.

If you do not have a good first degree we will consider your application if you have extensive work experience and other formal and professional qualifications in network related subjects.

This means if you many years experience in a good job with networking, you could take this course and have a masters without Bachelors. Notice they also accept professional qualifications.

To keep the discussion on track to my original question. Would anyone here accept a professional Qualification (Not Certification) instead of completing a degree. I am curious on how people see these in general.

 

Some USA companies will consider a professional qualification in lieu of a degree. I always did when in the engineer/engineering technologist/engineering designer hiring mode, but that is an exception to the human resource rule of having ‘the degree box checked’ on an application.

Having the ‘box checked’ is just a lazy way of screening, in my opinion. Of course being afraid of legal action resulting from actually checking with previous employers doesn’t help the screening process at all.:scool:

 

Many foreign to US professional qualifications translate to degree in USA.

For example my State-certified Engineer from Germany evaluated by Charter member NACES agency as equivalent to Bachelor of Engineering from US Regionally Accredited University.

In this case HR can mark the box of the degree and a person can be hired for the position.

And if you compare the classes and exams one takes for this qualification you will see that it's indeed matches a BEng degree program.

 

I'm glad it worked for you! Like I said above "I always did when in the engineer /engineering technologist/engineering designer hiring mode, but that is an exception to the human resource rule of having ‘the degree box checked’ on an application."

I spent some time as a member of a technical society attempting to promote ‘professional qualifications’ similar to current European models way back in the 80s and 90s, but it just hasn’t really caught on here in the USA. You may be preaching to the choir in my case!