How Do I Become A Chartered Engineer?
How do you become a chartered engineer? It is a process that will take approximately 8 years altogether (this includes your time spent at university). Therefore once you have finished university, it will take around 4 years.
Many engineers have a goal of achieving chartership as it is a professional qualification that has a positive view across the many sectors in engineering. I left university 18 months ago and will talk you through my experiences so far in the path towards chartership. My experiences revolve around the IMechE and their MPDS (Monitored Professional Development Scheme)
The MPDS (Monitored Professional Development Scheme) is a scheme that requires a yearly payment. Fortunately, I work for a company that pays for me to be on the MPDS. Additionally, they cover my annual professional annual membership fee. The majority of engineering companies will cover these costs for their employees. However, the MPDS is not a prerequisite for obtaining chartership, but it will benefit you to carry out similar tasks to help develop your final application.
The Standard of a Chartered Engineer
The Engineering council have a standard (UK Spec) that sets out the competence and commitment required to become professionally registered: Engineering Technician (EngTech), Incorporated Engineer (IEng) or Chartered Engineer (CEng). It also gives you examples of activities that demonstrate competencies and commitment. So make sure you have a read of it if you haven’t already. The competencies are:
- A – Knowledge and understanding
- B – Design and development of processes, systems, services and products
- C – Responsibility, management or leadership
- D – Communication and inter-personal skills
- E – Professional commitment
These competencies are broken down further in the standard e.g. A1, A2 etc. Knowing all the competencies is very beneficial.
Reporting
Although I am talking about tasks I have completed on the MPDS here, you can take these away and apply them yourself. The MPDS requires you to complete reports every quarter (3 months) about tasks you have completed and how they relate to the competencies. An essential activity for writing your quarterly reports is using trigger words for the UK spec. Trigger words will make it clear which competency you have developed. The reports need to be less than 500 words, helping you develop a clear, concise writing style. At the end of each year, you write an annual report overviewing your year, highlighting key activities. Your previously written quarterly reports will form a large portion of your annual report.
A mentor (a chartered engineer) will mark your reports, giving you feedback on how to improve them. Writing the quarterly reports under 500 words whilst expressing the work you have done is a skill. Hence, take on board the feedback you receive. This process will go on for approximately 4 years, after which you write your application to your institution to become a chartered engineer. You will only apply for a chartership once you and your mentor agree you meet the criteria. On most graduate schemes, you are assigned a mentor from your first day. So don’t worry about having to find a mentor.
What Level Do My Competencies Need To Be To Become A Chartered Engineer?
The IMechE requires you to score three level 3’s and two level 2’s (in any order) for the competencies stated above. When your mentor is marking your reports, they will score your competencies based on what you have covered in them. Using terms from the UK spec is crucially important here.
The IMechE’s scoring system is as followed:
- 1 = Aware – Performs activity with significant supervision & guidance
- 2 = Familiar – Performs activity in a range of contexts, supervision required in more complex circumstances.
- 3 = Skilled – Performs activity in some complex or non-routine contexts. Significant responsibility and autonomy.
- 4 = Expert – Performs activity in a wide range of complex or non-routine contexts. Substantial personal autonomy.
Once you and your mentor agree you are at the desired level, you will progress to your application for chartership. Your application will consist of your yearly/quarterly reports you have completed previously. Striving for the highest quality when completing your reports will prove beneficial for your application. However, you can edit your final application as you wish. Hence you can make amendments to your application.
What can I do to help?
A hugely beneficial task I complete is maintaining a log of the work/tasks from the week. At the end of each week, I give myself 20/30 minutes to write down all the activities I have undertaken (technical and non-technical) and what competencies they highlight. When it is time to write my report, I can reflect on my work log, highlighting my pivotal tasks and the competencies I have developed.
Keeping your work is also a crucial activity. As part of the MPDS, you can submit evidence, e.g. files, photos, of the work you have completed. Again, this evidence is scored against the competencies to give you a good idea of the level you are currently working at (see below). A great piece of evidence to upload, which I have found useful, is end of project/rotation reviews with your manager. The MPDS is an evidence-based scheme, so having evidence of your performance (with the competencies you developed scored) from your manager is brilliant.
Completed a year in industry?
If you have completed a year in industry during university, you can claim this as a year’s worth of experience. Meaning, it will take approximately 3 years instead of 4 to achieve chartership. As mentioned above, write reports about the work you have completed (technical and non-technical) showing how they reflect against the competencies. Additionally, keep evidence of your work.
Overview
- It will take approximately 4 years after you finish university, depending on the work you undertake and the responsibility you have.
- Keep a log of the work in which you are involved and your role within them
- Keep evidence of your work and create documents that you can submit as evidence (end of rotation review along with competency scoring with your manager)
- Relate your work to the competencies in the UK spec.
- Write reports (this is mandatory for the MPDS). Crucial to use key terms from the standard. For example: ” I presented and discussed my proposal….” (D2)
- Keep reading over the engineering council standard – this helps make it easier to understand how your work and competencies relate.
I hope you enjoyed this post and have a good understanding of what is required to achieve an engineering chartership. It is a challenging path, but I would thoroughly recommend it as it allows you to develop a wide range of skills and competencies. Being a chartered engineer shows the skills you acquire and the quality of work you produce. Many organisations look for chartered engineers in senior engineering roles and with high responsibility.
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