Plumbing advice needed

[sinker]

Degree on its own means little, long gone are the days when having a degree was a relative rarity.
Professional Engineer is a good way to distinguish a professional from a fitter etc

"Engineer" has been used in English for about 300 years to mean anything from grease monkey to train driver (although for driving fell out of British English in early 20thC) to large engine mechanic, to professional engineer. Therein lies your problem

Only a BSc in Eng (not BEng/MEng, so I may be outranked here)

Agree; "engineer" is a broad term.

"Professional"; in my opinion I always used to consider that a "professional" was someone who needed to be Chartered or a member of an institution etc in order to be able to carry out their work. So a doctor or solicitor etc.
But these days the word is added to almost anything to make it sound grander than it is; Healthcare Professional, HR Professional, Marketing Professional etc.

All semantics.

All bollocks.

 

[sinker]

Engineers design things and make choices, technicians execute the design and run and maintain systems.

I was about to make the same point but was wondering how to express it. You have done it perfectly. I agree.

 

[andrewmcleod]

But these days the word is added to almost anything to make it sound grander than it is; Healthcare Professional, HR Professional, Marketing Professional etc.

I quite like the concept of someone in HR or Marketing who _wasn't_ professional, but just did it for fun as an amateur?