Engineering Technologist
and
Professional Engineer

Between the summary statement of engineering technologist and professional engineer, the most notable difference lies within the domain. While engineering technologist knowledge and skill base focus on the technology domain, professional engineer competencies lie within the engineering discipline.

According to the general description role of ET, ET are often specialists in the theory and practice of a particular branch of engineering technology or engineering-related technology (the technology domain), and specifically in its application, adaptation or management, in a variety of contexts. Within their specialist field, their expertise may be at a high level, and fully equivalent to that of a PE. ET may not however, be expected to exercise the same breadth of perspective as PE, or carry the same wide-ranging responsibilities for stakeholder interactions, for system integration, and for synthesising overall approaches to complex situations and complex engineering problems.

Through the description, it could be derived that ET focuses on the application within a specialised field, while PE operates in a wide array of complex task and responsibilities. As a result, every professional engineer could be considered as Engineering Technologist in their specialised area of practices. For example, a mechanical engineer with HVAC background could be qualified as an engineering technologist within the MEP and HVAC domain.

Those analysis of the two roles lead to the conclusion that all PE, by successfully demonstrating their ability within a specialised domain could totally be converted to ET, yet this does not apply inversely.

The answer is yes. As there are 6 pathways for engineering skill assessment:
Accredited qualifications
1) Australian Qualifications
2) Washington Accord Qualifications
3) Sydney Accord Qualifications
4) Dublin Accord Qualifications
5) Other Recognised Qualifications

Non-Accredited qualifications/Engineering Managers
6) Competency Demonstration Report (CDR)

For the above accredited qualifications, you only have to submit your qualification to be assessed as a PE without the need to write a competency demonstration report (CDR). For other non-accredited qualifications, you always have to write CDR to be qualified as a PE.

However, regardless of your qualifications, if you want your qualification and employment period to be assessed as ET, you have to write a CDR to fully demonstrate your competencies within the area of expertise during your employment period. The success of your ET skill assessment and relevant employment experience depends on how you establish your credibility under that specific area.
For non-accredited qualifications and engineering managers pathway, to complete your assessment at both engineering technologist and professional engineer, 2 CDRs have to be written and all the other documents have to be planned accordingly prior to submission to fully demonstrate and align your competencies for both engineering and technology domain.