Tips for Chartered Status

Young engineers who attended the YEA-V Chartered Status Forum wanted to hear more tips for writing Career Episode Reports. So here are some that weren't mentioned on the night.

 

1. In your introduction link what your role on the project was with the majority of the claimed elements of competency.

            Example:

- Introduction – “I was a design engineer with specific responsibility for the design of the electrical component of the project.”  Most of the elements claimed, were from unit C2 – Engineering Planning and Design.

 

- If however in the introduction you stated – “I was responsible for managing the design of the electrical component of the project…"  Then the assessor will relate this statement of your role/tasks to a unit of competency such as E1B Engineering Project Management and thus would expect the majority of the claimed elements of competency to be from that unit.

 

2. After writing a CER, check if you can attain any other elements using the same experience. Then rewrite part of your CER to suit the defining activities of the other element.

                        Example:

- Write a CER for the unit E1B: Engineering Project Management

 

- Then look at the element "C3.6: Manages Information". Write, "As stated above..." and reword what you have already written and claim another element in the same CER.

 

3. Write units C1 and C3 as time-based CERs and unit C2 as a project-based CER.

            Example:

- For C1, write about the past 6 months or 1 year. Describe the tasks that you have carried out that show you have demonstrated the elements of this unit.

 

- For C2, write about a single project (it could last anywhere from 1 week to 1 year or longer). Describe what your role was and the tasks you performed for this particular project to be completed.

 

4. Sometimes it can seem difficult to write about what you did because as a young engineer you don't have as much responsibility. Hence take credit for what you did do. It may help to view your supervisor as the client when writing.

            Example:

- You may not have made the final decision, but you may have analysed and provided the relevant information to your supervisor for them to make an informed decision. If that's what you did, then write about it.

 

If you have any more tips, queries or suggestions, please share them with your fellow young engineers. Thank you to Joanne Gashumba, Rowan Crosbie-Goold and the other Chartered engineers who helped with these tips.

 

The presentation from the Forum can be downloaded from the YEA-V website (www.engineersaustralia.org.au/yeavic) or viewed online at http://www.engineersaustralia.org.au/search/events/mediavision