BORDON SEME this week received national recognition for its professional engineering standards. This accreditation is clear recognition by the wider UK engineering community of the commitment by the Army's Corps of Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME) to professional engineering standards and the personal development of its soldiers. The commandant of the School of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering (SEME), Colonel Geoff Brown recently hosted a visit from Peter Wason, the chief executive of the prestigious Institution of Incorporated Engineers (IIE). The occasion marked the recent accreditation by the IIE of the SEME delivered Armourer and Vehicle Mechanic Class 1 advanced apprenticeship, as a route to registration as Engineering Technician (Eng Tech) with the UK Engineering Council. This accreditation allows graduates of the schemes to apply for Associate Membership of the IIE (AMIIE), and forms a strong basis for personal development to full "incorporated engineer" status later in their careers. According to Engineering Council standards, "a professional engineering technician should be involved in applying proven techniques and procedures to the solution of practical engineering problems. "They should carry out supervisory or technical responsibility, and contribute to the design, development, manufacture and maintenance of equipment, processes or services".  From what the IIE have seen of the work of REME, and the training delivered by SEME, it recognises that the professional men and women of REME make the grade. This contribution to professional engineering excellence has been borne out on many occasions during recent military operations, where REME technicians and engineers have consistently applied their training and skills to maintaining the equipment and fighting capability of the Army. Mr Wason, himself a former captain in the Royal Navy and a previous commandant of the RN training establishment HMS Collingwood, presented a certificate to Colonel Brown in front of an invited audience of officers and staff. He was then taken on a tour of SEME technical training areas by Trevor Piper, the training business manager of Vosper Thorneycroft (VT) so that he could see first-hand the extensive facilities that SEME and its business partner VT are able to offer trainees. He was accompanied by Clive Booley, the MoD civil servant head of SEME training standards, and by Lt Col John Edwards, the professional development officer from REME HQ at Arborfield. Mr Wason left Bordon full of praise for the work of SEME and VT, and said he was amazed at the range of facilities and equipment that the site offers. He added he would like to see stronger links between SEME and the wider professional engineering community. The IIE is on the cusp of the most significant merger between professional bodies that this country has seen for many years, as the IIE and the IEE (Institution of Electrical Engineers) join up to form the new Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET). Workloads in both institutions are considerable at this time, as the staffs prepare for the merger this month. It was a mark of the value placed on this event by the IIE that Mr Wason himself was able to attend at this critical time