The recent Education Report cover story, "Lifelong Learning: Engineers Grapple With Barriers to Access and Delivery", emphasized the importance of lifelong learning for engineers, focusing primarily on classroom and online instructional settings. However, engineering is as much an art or craft as it is a science; it requires experience and know-how as well as information. In other words, it involves the exercise of skill, not just an awareness of facts and techniques.
That is why engineering prowess is usually described in terms of competence, rather than in terms of intelligence. Engineering licensure is meant to authorize only those with sufficient competence to practice legally, and continuing professional development is mandated in many jurisdictions to ensure that licensed engineers maintain adequate competence over the course of their careers.