Are plumbers engineers?

BAE's chairman, Dick Olver, said describing university-educated engineers in the same way as those with technical qualifications, such as repairmen and gas fitters, makes it more difficult to attract people to study engineering at university and enter the profession. But the counter–argument was that "employees with years of training and experience are worthy to be called engineers". It's an argument that never goes away. There have been many attempts to change the perceived misuse of the term 'engineer' over many years, but nothing changes. Just this winter, again we have had 'engineers' out fixing downed power cables, for example – technicians, surely. But lets take a calm look at it. The Engineering Council grades engineers in four groups – Chartered Engineer – Ceng; Incorporated Engineer – IEng; Engineering Technician – EngTech; and Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Technicians– ICTTech. ICT Technicians, says The Engineering Council, are employed in a range of jobs that involve supporting or facilitating the use of ICT equipment and applications by others. They work in areas such as ICT hardware, software or system installation, operation, maintenance, incident/change/problem management, administration, security, fault diagnosis and fixing. EngTechs, solve practical engineering problems. They are professionals with supervisory or technical responsibility and apply safe systems of working. They contribute to the design, development, manufacture, commissioning, de-commissioning, operation or maintenance of products, equipment, processes or services. Incorporated Engineers maintain and manage applications of current and developing technology, and may undertake engineering design, development, manufacture, construction and operation. As for Chartered Engineers, they develop appropriate solutions to engineering problems. They may develop and apply new technologies, promote advanced designs and design methods, and introduce new and more efficient production techniques, or pioneer new engineering services and management methods. The title CEng is protected by civil law, incidentally. Now, each of these has associated educational and experience credentials. So where is parity with plumbers in all of this? Well, plumbers may be educated to NVQ levels 1, 2 or 3. To run their own business, they must have an NVQ level 3, in fact. And that means that, at level 3, they are in ICT Technician and Technician Engineer territory, both requiring level 3 qualifications. Technician Engineer requires Edexcel BTEC level 3 Certificate or Diploma in Engineering or in Construction and the Built Environment; or a qualification, approved by their professional engineering institution, in engineering or construction set at level 3 (or above) in the Qualifications and Credit Framework, or at level 6 (or above) in the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework; or equivalent qualifications approved by their professional engineering institution. So, a plumber holding a level 3 NVQ could legitimately claim to be at Technician Engineer level; below that and they are a technician; someone who maintains technical equipment. But the differences are too subtle and engineer is such a nice flexible term, because, quite clearly, it does span a broad range. I think Dick Olver is on to a loser with this and that plumbers et al will keep their 'engineer' tag. What say you?