17 CAR § 285-501 – Professional experience

(a) Professional experience of an applicant will include only such experience gained after the applicant’s eighteenth birthday and shall be experience that requires the exercise of original thought and independent responsibility.
(b) In the field or shop or laboratory, experience shall begin only after apprenticeship, or other subordinate position, unless the work accomplished specifically shows the applicant possesses originality and has responsibility in the subordinate position.
(c) In the office, experience shall begin when the applicant ceases to do technician’s duties and begins work that requires original thought and responsibility.
(d) Teaching.
1. (1) Teaching engineering at the junior level or above in an approved curriculum of four (4) years or more may be considered as engineering experience.
2. (2) Teaching surveying in an approved curriculum of two (2) or four (4) years or more may be considered surveying experience.
(e) Experience gained from training programs, sales, applications, contracting, and manufacturer’s representation or any other nondefined experience will be evaluated by the State Board of Licensure for Professional Engineers and Professional Surveyors.
(f)
1. (1) Experience shall be obtained under the direct supervision of a professional licensee of the respective profession, which is generally presumed to mean that the professional licensee is in close proximity and available for regular personal interaction and mentoring rather than in a remote manner.
2. (2) This provision may be waived at the discretion of the board if the applicant can demonstrate that another supervisory arrangement provides similar oversight and guidance.
(g) Professional experience shall begin only after completing the requirements for graduation for those applicants graduating from an approved engineering or surveying program.
(h) The provisions of this section shall not apply to reciprocity applicants to the extent that the applicant’s experience has been accepted by another state in which applicant holds a license that is substantially similar to Arkansas’s.