President of the central region of the Engineering and Architectural Services group of Tetra Tech, Inc. in Tulsa, Okla. He has been a consulting engineer for 34 years, focusing on municipal water and wastewater projects. He has been with Tetra Tech for 27 years. He holds a B.S. degree in civil engineering from Kansas State University and a M.S. degree in environmental engineering from Oklahoma State University. Nelson is licensed as a professional engineer in four states and holds Class A operator licenses in Oklahoma for waterworks and wastewater works. Nelson served

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Reports about the future of engineering education intended to promote the skills, knowledge, and attributes necessary for engineering practice and to better protect the public were widely discussed and published throughout the 20th century. During the past several years, there has been a great deal of discussion around the idea that a baccalaureate degree is not sufficient to produce the engineer with the required skill set to practice as a professional engineer in the 21st century. Initially it was considered that a master's degree in engineering could compensate for the shortfall of technical depth needed for effective practice. Upon further study it was determined that the master's degree was not necessarily the most effective path for all engineering disciplines and all engineers. Some disciplines have a very effective program for onthe-job learning in the early stages of a professional career. Others sought to enhance business acumen and education through a combination approach with both business and engineering coursework, beyond a bachelor's degree-perhaps an MBA. This led to the development of a concept of equivalent credits to a master's degree. Recently the American Society of Civil Engineers organized a task committee to study the "equivalent 30" concept. Meanwhile, the Education Committee of the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES) was charged with developing "required standards for assessing non-university coursework, paying particular attention to the rigor required for equivalency" and to " [u]se input from entities that currently provide meaningful, non-university courses." The NCEES Education Committee also came to a key conclusion in 2014. Based on the Education Committee's collaborations and interactions with several key professional societies, the committee has made a substantive determination: The search for "equivalency" is not appropriate. Any education initiative using practice-oriented education is clearly different from university coursework and thus cannot be judged as being equivalent. It is likely that in the near future, the development of a new practice-oriented pathway will become a top priority for the Committee. This scholarly paper will delve into a series of questions about the future of engineering education outside of the traditional master's degree in engineering pathway, including •What constitutes a practice-oriented pathway? • What is the role of NCEES and ASCE in advancing such a pathway? • How is the practice-oriented pathway distinct from the academic pathway? • How might the various engineering societies collaborate to offer a practice-oriented pathway?