Following the 2026 IEA meetings in Cape Town, Engineers Australia’s National President explains how global cooperation helps maintain the standards underpinning the engineering profession.
“Everything domestic is international.”
This phrase, shared by a panellist during the opening day of the 2026 International Engineering Alliance (IEA) meetings, held in Cape Town, South Africa, in June, captured a theme that would emerge repeatedly throughout the week.
Representing around 40 countries, the IEA focuses on engineering education, professional mobility and accreditation.
For Engineers Australia National President and Board Chair Tom Goerke FIEAust CPEng EngExec, attending the annual meetings for the first time sparked a renewed appreciation for how much work happens behind the scenes to support engineers’ careers.
“We saw more than 200 people meeting in Cape Town, all coming together with a common purpose, which was to ensure education and agreements in engineering were kept at the highest level,” he said.
“It’s a wonderful testament to engineers globally that we understand and see the importance of good engineering, and that you have so many people – most of them volunteering their time – coming together to make that happen.”
Goerke spoke with create to reflect on why the work carried out through the IEA matters to engineers at every stage of their careers, from the quality of their university education to their ability to work across international borders.
The scaffolding behind every engineering degree
One of the IEA’s core priorities is maintaining consistent and internationally recognised standards for engineering education.
The IEA oversees a series of international accords, including the Washington, Sydney and Dublin Accords, which establish benchmarks for engineering qualifications.
Rather than prescribing specific subjects or technologies, these frameworks focus on the outcomes graduates should achieve.
That approach is particularly important at a time when technology is evolving rapidly, according to Goerke.
“If you look at our national competency standards, they’re written so that they are not sensitive to specific technology changes – they focus on the teaching processes and the outcomes.”
The significance of the IEA’s work to engineering careers in Australia is sometimes underestimated, he said.
“For every engineer in Australia who’s gone through a Washington Accord accredited university, the quality of their engineering degree exists because of the IEA existing. Your career based on that engineering degree has been enabled by meetings like the one I went to in 2026, and the same will be true going forward.”
READ: The history of the Washington Accord – and the Australians who made it happen
The power of peer pressure
Unlike many international organisations, participation in the IEA is entirely voluntary.
There is no regulator compelling countries to participate or comply with agreements and accords. Instead, member organisations submit themselves to peer review and ongoing assessment because they recognise the value of belonging to a trusted international system.
“The IEA exists because people want it to exist,” Goerke said. “We collectively work together to hold each other to account. You can step away from the accords and agreements, but if you do, you separate yourself from your peers.”
Countries and professional bodies, including Engineers Australia, are regularly assessed against agreed benchmarks. Those that can’t demonstrate they meet the required standards may be asked to make improvements before retaining their standing.
A highlight for Engineers Australia this year was securing a six-year extension of its authorised membership status under both the International Engineering Technologists Agreement (IETA) and the Agreement for International Engineering Technicians (AIET), which was a strong endorsement of the organisation’s assessment and accreditation systems.
Goerke was also struck by the standing of the Australian delegation within the international engineering community. Alongside Goerke, Engineers Australia was represented by Engineers Australia Group Executive, Professional Standards and Engineering Practice Bernadette Foley FIEAust CPEng EngExec, Emeritus Professor Elizabeth Taylor AO HonFIEAust CPEng EngExec and AIRCDRE (retd) Anker Brodersen CSC FIEAust CPEng EngExec – all of whom played active roles throughout the meetings.
“Anker, Elizabeth and Bernie are very highly respected and have been working as part of IEA for many years,” he said. “But there is no guarantee that Engineers Australia will be successful in its accord or agreements. You need to do the hard work, and you need to convince your peers that you have done the hard work.”
READ: Elizabeth Taylor on challenging assumptions and bringing more voices to the table
Enabling professional mobility
By holding engineering bodies to high and consistent professional standards, the IEA also facilitates professional mobility between countries.
“We need engineers internationally to come to Australia,” Goerke said. “But we want our engineers to be able to travel internationally as well.”
Through international agreements and accords, engineers can have their qualifications recognised more easily across participating nations.
For example, if a qualification is covered by the Washington Accord, Engineers Australia can quickly establish its equivalence to Australian requirements.
“Even for countries that don’t support the Washington Accord – and many in Europe don’t, because they have a slightly different degree process – Engineers Australia still reviews those and gives Australian companies confidence that an engineer meets the minimum requirements we have in Australia,” Goerke said.
Ultimately, he said, the value of these agreements is measured in opportunities.
“It’s not just the agreements. This is about supporting people in their careers, enabling them to really help Australia, but also to be able to travel internationally. And it supports that rich cultural diversity and expertise that we can get from engineers from around the world coming to Australia.”
Everything domestic is international
A recurring theme arising from this year’s IEA meetings was that engineering bodies increasingly need to look beyond their own jurisdictions when setting standards and preparing for future challenges.
“Engineering is increasingly global,” Goerke said. “The problems we’re solving today – whether it’s infrastructure, energy, sustainability or climate resilience – the shift to digital means national borders cease to exist.”
In this environment, engineering bodies can no longer afford to operate in isolation.
“This is where international collaboration has never been more important. Events like the IEA meetings are a chance for organisations to get together and collaborate without borders and set standards without borders.”
For a country with a relatively small population, Australia carries significant weight in those discussions.
“We don’t simply participate. We are helping shape international engineering standards.
“We are taking Australian expertise to discussions affecting the profession globally, and that’s amazing for a country of our size. Australian engineers are highly respected internationally because we hold ourselves to account. We hold the engineering profession and the universities to account.
“We hold that Chartered status should not be easy to get, and we try to keep that standard high. And I think that is something Australia should be really proud of.”
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