I have been trying to convince a young graduate working in my department to join the IET. We’re a small, specialist engineering firm and don’t offer very much in the way of graduate development instead relying on ‘on the job’ training. The last time we spoke he asked me what the benefits of becoming a member were and I have to admit I struggled. In hindsight I should have done my homework before approaching him.
I have to own up to being someone who joined the IEE (as it was then) because I was encouraged to do so by my manager at the time, who was a Fellow of the institute. Since then I have paid my subscription each year but rarely made use of it. I guess I haven’t done the institute any favours and fear that I may have lost you a new member. Do you think the situation is recoverable?
There’s a lot more support and guidance readily available for graduates these days due in no small part to the World Wide Web. You say that you should have done your homework before you approached this young man, well hindsight is a wonderful thing but so is humility. Why don’t you take a look at the ‘Careers and training’ pages of the IET’s website http://www.theiet.org/careers/ and bring yourself up to speed with what’s available. You can then go back to this graduate, admit that you should have been able to explain the benefits of membership however you have now put that right and would like to start again.
The answer to your question ‘Do you think the situation is recoverable?’ is ‘yes, absolutely.’ Whilst you do your research into the path to incorporation I’d suggest you look also look at mentoring. Perhaps you have already considered offering yourself as this young man’s mentor; it would certainly help to demonstrate to him your commitment to the benefits of incorporation. It also sounds like it would be a great way for you to ‘refresh’ your knowledge of what the institute offers to its members.
Mentoring may also be a great opportunity for you to introduce the notion of employer accreditation to your company. As you say you are “a specialist engineering company” offering “very little” in the way of training. Surely your company would wish to attract the best graduate engineers and having a structured development programme leading to incorporation could only help to support this.
As the world ‘shrinks’ it truly does become an ‘oyster’ for upwardly mobile young graduates. We all know that engineers are in short supply and because of this companies want to be assured that they are recruiting the right skills and experience into their businesses. More and more are seeking to benchmark engineers against recognised levels of competency; the CEng professional registration is one of these benchmarks.
I know it can sometimes be difficult to engage new graduates in discussions about their career aspirations. Having only just been ‘liberated’ from academia the last thing on their minds is more ‘study’. However gaining professional registration does not need to be onerous and if you do nothing else I would suggest that you ensure you get this message across to your graduate.
Practically all UK universities seek to gain accreditation for their engineering degrees with the IET. So it is more than likely that your graduate has already ‘ticked the first box’ on the route to incorporation. The web site holds a list of UK accredited degrees so it will be easy to check this out.
If your company does not encourage the keeping of logbooks as part of your day to day engineering activities then the next step is to ensure that your graduate starts to keep a record of the work that he is doing, his achievements and the process he went through in achieving them.
The Institute requires written evidence to back up applications for registration so it is far better to have an accurate record of what actually happened at the time rather than have to try and reconstitute them later. Again keeping these records does not need to a chore and in recognition of this the IET offers an on-line system called Career Manager that is available to all its members.
Perhaps the most important thing to say about Career Manager is that, as the name suggests, it is not merely a tool to record what you do on a day to day basis. It is an on-line space where you can map out your future and then plan and execute the steps required to achieve it.
Your graduate’s initial outlay would be £102 (for Associate Membership) and this would grant him access to Career Manager (which of course you already have). However it would be fantastic if your company would pay this (and other associated fees) to demonstrate the value they place on professional registration.
I can’t deny that you have some work to do, both in getting yourself back up to speed on the benefits the IET offers and in encouraging your company to get engaged in this process. However the journey will be worth it so don’t give up.
If you need any moral support then find out who your local Professional Development Advisor (PDA) is and get in touch either via Tel: +44 (0) 1438 767 669 or Email: employeraccreditation@theiet.org
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