North Carolina PE Renewal & Continuing Education Requirements

How to renew your North Carolina PE license: Complete the applicable continuing education requirements, confirm your Professional Ethics course is completed, and complete the official online renewal process and payment through NCBELS. LicensePoint provides continuing education; license renewal is completed through the state.

North Carolina professional engineer licenses are renewed annually through the North Carolina Board of Examiners for Engineers and Surveyors (NCBELS). Individual PE licenses expire on December 31 of each year and become invalid unless renewed. The Board generally opens its renewal process on December 1, and state law permits renewal during the month immediately following expiration. A licensee who does not complete the required renewal process loses the right to practice until the license is reinstated.

Annual PDH Requirements & Ethics Mandate

North Carolina professional engineers must complete 15 professional development hours (PDH) during each annual renewal period. Effective with the 2024 renewal, at least 1 PDH each year must be in Ethics or Rules of Professional Conduct. North Carolina defines an ethics or professional-conduct activity as one that addresses ethical concerns and conflicts, codes of conduct, standards of practice or care, project management and risk-assessment management, or similar subjects intended to protect the public’s health, safety, and welfare.

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1 PDH

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5 PDH

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Qualifying CPC Activities

A qualifying course or activity must have a purpose and objective that maintains, improves, or expands the skills and knowledge relevant to the licensee’s field of practice. Selection of appropriate courses and activities is the responsibility of the individual licensee, and the Board retains final authority to determine whether an activity and the number of PDHs claimed are acceptable.

North Carolina recognizes qualifying activities that include:

  • Completion of college courses

  • Completion of continuing education courses, seminars, and workshops

  • Correspondence, Internet, televised, videotaped, audiotaped, and similar courses or tutorials, generally with an examination required for completion

  • Webinar attendance when attendance is documented

  • Presenting or attending seminars, in-house courses, workshops, conventions, conferences, and professional or technical presentations

  • Teaching or instructing qualifying courses or programs

  • Authoring published papers, articles, or books

  • Active participation in professional or technical societies or accrediting organizations

  • Obtaining patents

  • Authoring examination questions accepted for engineering or land-surveying examinations

  • Active participation on qualifying boards, commissions, committees, or councils

  • Educational outreach involving professional licensure or the engineering profession and K–12 or higher-education students

For correspondence, Internet, recorded, and similar self-study courses, an examination is generally required. However, no examination is required for attendance at a webinar presentation when attendance is documented. Contact-hour credit is based on actual instructional time and is credited to the nearest one-third of an hour.

North Carolina no longer requires engineers to complete continuing education only through a Board-approved sponsor. In May 2024, NCBELS announced that it would cease approving new CPC sponsor applications and that 2024 would be the final renewal year for approved providers. Licensees are not required to take courses from an approved sponsor; the responsibility remains with each licensee to determine whether an education program maintains, improves, or expands skills and knowledge relevant to the licensee’s field of practice, subject to Board audit.

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US-PE-ET-103 - Audio Podcast Ethics for Professional Engineers

Stream the podcast-style audio modules on your phone or computer at your own pace from the course web site or your favorite podcast platform. Then take the mobile-friendly quiz and receive your certificate of completion.

Designed specifically for busy engineers, this course delivers your required ethics training in a flexible, audio-first podcast format.

NC Laws, Ethics, Technical course options

Carry-Forward & Recordkeeping Rules

A professional engineer who completes more than the annual requirement may carry forward up to 15 excess PDH into the next annual renewal period. The licensee must first exceed the 15-PDH annual requirement before any hours may be carried forward. Excess ethics hours may be carried forward when they are part of the hours earned above the annual minimum. For example, a licensee who completes 16 total PDHs, including 2 ethics PDHs, may carry forward 1 ethics PDH.

Licensees must maintain a professional-development record sufficient to support all PDHs claimed. The record must include:

  • Type of activity

  • Course title or specific subject

  • Sponsoring organization

  • Course location

  • Course duration

  • Completion date

  • Instructor or speaker name

  • Number of PDHs earned

  • Completion certificates or other attendance-verification documentation

These records must be retained for three years and provided to the Board when requested for audit verification. The Board may select licensees for audit randomly or based on information available to the Board. A licensee selected for audit must provide the activity log, transcripts, completion certificates, or comparable attendance evidence. The Board may also require information regarding the course content, instructors, and sponsoring organization.

Renewal & Exemptions

During renewal, the professional engineer reports compliance with North Carolina’s continuing professional competency requirements. The Board’s rules permit it to require a continuing-education form identifying the PDH credits claimed. When required, the licensee must provide sufficient detail for audit verification, certify and sign the form, and submit it with the renewal application and fee.

New licensees obtaining North Carolina licensure by examination or comity are exempt from the CPC requirement for their first renewal period. North Carolina residents generally follow North Carolina’s annual CPC requirements. A licensee who resides outside North Carolina may satisfy the CPC requirements of the resident jurisdiction; however, if that jurisdiction has no CPC requirement or the licensee is exempt there, the licensee must meet North Carolina’s requirements.

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