Around 1,400 IET Members are currently in the process of applying. To help you work smarter not harder, we’ve put together 10 tips to help you with your journey towards Professional Registration.
These helpful pointers have been put together by our team of experts and Professionally Registered members and explain what you need to make the best application you can.
Top Tip 1 – Do not use bullet points!
Your application should be an extended description of your engineering career history not a summary of your roles; it should read like a compelling story not a CV.
Top Tip 2 – Find your educational certificates now!
You must provide us with a copy of your engineering (or other relevant) qualification certificates as part of your application. For applicants who started their course from 2013 onwards, you must also provide us with a copy of your academic transcript (Higher Education Academic Report – HEAR) to accompany your certificates.
Top Tip 3 – Get help with your application
For help and support with drafting your application, please contact us by emailing profreg@colleensflowercellar.com or calling +44 (0)1438 767333 and we’ll put you in touch with a trained advisor.
Start by signing up to one of our weekly Professional Registration webinars!
Top Tip 4 - How to demonstrate evidence of “further learning” in your application
Further learning can be demonstrated through a variety of methods, such as:
- Engaging in additional formal study or vendor training
- Conducting independent study in your engineering field
- Acquiring knowledge on the job or through manufacturers’ courses.
- Leading or participating in engineering research projects, as well as producing and publishing engineering papers, reports, and technical documentation.
Top Tip 5 – What to include in your development action plan
A development action plan is your short, medium and long-term career development plan beyond becoming Professionally Registered. What are your goals and how will you achieve them?
There is no set format for this but is useful in demonstrating to assessors how you plan to continue to develop your skills and knowledge.
Top Tip 6 - What to write in the employment history section on Career Manager
This is the main part of the application form and is your chance to tell your engineering story. In the responsibilities section, you should:
- When documenting your engineering experience, it’s important to reference the UK-SPEC or ICTTech standard and illustrate how your experience aligns with the provided examples.
- Describe your responsibilities and the duties you performed in each engineering role, ensuring that more recent roles are described in greater detail.
- Always write in full sentences and in the first person.
- Do not use bullet points.
- Employ the STAR method by describing the Situation that required your professional input, the Tasks you were assigned, the Actions you undertook, and the Results of those actions. This approach will help you clearly communicate the depth and breadth of your engineering expertise.
Top Tip 7 - Write your application in the first person
The assessors are looking for evidence of your professional development, competency and personal technical contribution to engineering projects – this will not be found if you only give a description of what your company do or what the projects were that you worked on.
Use language like “I implemented, I designed, I oversaw, I managed” – they want to know what you did, what you were responsible for and what your engineering work achieved.
Top Tip 8 – How to record your competency evidence
If you are working towards developing the required competences, collect and record evidence against specific competences using the self-assessment function in Career Manager. You can then transfer this evidence to your application once you are ready to apply.
You should refer to the UK-SPEC or ICTTech standard throughout your application as this describes the competence and commitment requirements required for each registration category.
Top Tip 9 – Learn to love Career Manager!
Career Manager is the IET’s online professional development tool and it has three main functions:
- Competence development – for engineers who are working towards Professional Registration. Here you can map your experience against the UK-SPEC and ICTTech competencies, record evidence and identify gaps which require further development before being ready to apply.
- Applying for Professional Registration – we recommend that you use Career Manager to apply for Professional Registration once you are ready – especially since it has a reduced application fee!
- CPD (Continuous Professional Development) – all IET members can plan and record their CPD activities here.
Top Tip 10 – Avoid using acronyms or abbreviations
Do not use acronyms or abbreviations unless you spell out fully what they mean and include a brief acronym/abbreviation list.
Interested in applying?
Apply to become Professionally Registered via Career Manager, our online skills and development recording tool.
Alternatively, you can apply offline by requesting our paper application forms from our website.