UK guide to chartership
Getting Chartered Engineer status can make a big difference when it comes to developing your career. That’s why we’re so committed to supporting all our people to get this professional accreditation. This guide has been designed to help you understand how the process works here at Buro Happold, and how we can help you make the grade. Please note, this guide is for graduates based in the UK only. It is also important to note that graduates are not expected to start the chartership process until they have been with us for at least three months (allowing you time to adjust to your new role).
STEP ONE: Where to start
Deciding on an institution
You may find there will be a number of institutions whose programmes you can follow in order to gain Chartered Engineer (CENG) status. It is important that you discuss your options with your line manager to get their insight as to which institution they feel would be most relevant for your role.
In fact, Buro Happold have written some training programmes which are accredited with certain institutions, and, naturally, we recommend these schemes as they are Buro Happold specific and have been designed to make sure that they are easier for our people working through them to digest. These schemes are accredited with the ICE and CIBSE.
STEP TWO: Applying to get onto a scheme
Application forms
The majority of the application forms can be found on the professional accreditation pages on our intranet. Alternatively, these can be downloaded directly from the institutions’ home pages.
Paying the fees
Buro Happold pays your fees if your local line manager agrees that the scheme’s right for you.
STEP THREE: The Schemes
The Initial Professional Development (IPD)
The Buro Happold accredited programmes are all based on the Engineering Council’s 16 core objectives that make up the IPD stage towards gaining chartership. During this stage, graduates are expected to fulfil these 16 objectives. The Buro Happold schemes have taken these core objectives and have made them more specific and easy to digest – and they have been designed so that you should be able to achieve them through your normal working role. This IPD stage takes approximately three and half years (although employees with prior experience may take less time as the objectives can be completed retrospectively).
The Importance of a Mentor/Delegated Engineer
Some schemes describe the Mentor as a Delegated Engineer (however, these two positions are actually the same). The role of the mentor is to meet with the employee going through the scheme at least once every 6 months to see their progression against the core objectives for the IPD stage, and to highlight any gaps and discuss how these can be overcome.
Where to look for help
As well as the support of your group, the Professional Accreditation page on our intranet can offer a lot of support in answering queries and providing links to the relevant institutions and paper work. Alternatively, you can also contact Gary or Jackie in the Learning and Development team.
