In my country certain electronics engineering jobs require a license. The licensing system and the exams are a joke, they don't test for engineering ability at all, more like trivia and formula-memorization tests.

Fortunately, only a small subset of jobs (radio and TV operations) require it, and the best graduates don't want to work those jobs anyway. Most engineering companies ignore it if it isn't legally required for the position. They instead look at where the applicant got their degree and relevant experience.

A large part of the problem I think is that screening thousands of engineering grads properly for engineering competence would be prohibitively expensive and time-consuming for the government, and no one wants to admit the system is broken.

I suspect any government initiative to regulate software development is going to run into similar problems. I wonder how the medical and legal industries do it.