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Accreditation Status and Career Advice for Juniors

Liam Carroll

Greetings,

I am relatively new to the IET and am just beginning my career. At this stage, I am attempting to establish a trajectory that will guide me in the right direction and assist me in determining the most appropriate next step for my professional development.
I am very fortunate to be enrolled in a Degree Apprenticeship program with my employer in the NHS. Currently, I work in the Medical Engineering department, where my responsibilities include contributing to the maintenance, repair and upkeep of medical linear accelerators. This role aligns perfectly with my interests, as it allows me to apply my knowledge and skills across various disciplines. Prior to this, I completed an advanced apprenticeship in Network Engineering, which has provided me with valuable insights into the integration of new technologies into existing systems.
I have successfully completed my Higher National Certificate (HNC) in Electrical and Electronics Engineering and am nearing the completion of my Higher National Diploma (HND) top-up course. This qualification will provide me with a pathway to undertake the final year of an electronics degree program. However, I have concerns regarding the accreditation status of the top-up course for my degree as it won't be IET accredited unfortunately. Despite this, I have gained three years of relevant work experience. Therefore, I would like to inquire whether the path I am currently pursuing will enable me to achieve Incorporated Status with the ultimate goal of becoming a Chartered Engineer in the future.
Additionally, I would greatly appreciate any advice or guidance on how to best prepare myself for the future. I am committed to continuous professional development (CPD) and have been actively engaging in various projects to enhance my skills and knowledge. However, I feel that I could benefit from a more structured approach to ensure I am on the right track.
I would be grateful for any insights or recommendations you may have to help me navigate my career path going forward.
Thankyou for reading :)
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  • 0

    The short answer is Yes.

    Ultimately, the Engineering Councils UK-SPEC standard (which all registration bodies must adhere to) states you need to have an the equivalent accredited Bachelors degree for IEng and a for CEng, an accredited integrated Masters degree or a combination of accredited Bachelors and Masters degrees.

    There are many people who apply for professional registration with non-accredited qualifications and are successful. It's just a case of having your education recognised as equivalent.

    As for structuring your CPD, I'd suggest looking at the UK-SPEC competencies and seeing if you have any weaker areas for which there could be an activity that would help with it. The IET does provide help with that: Professional Registration - Help (theiet.org).

    I'm not a PRA for the IET (but I am for another institution) but I'm sure one of the IET PRAs will comment on this.

    Good luck,

    Mark

  • 0 in reply to Mark Tickner
    Mark Tickner said:
    I'm not a PRA for the IET (but I am for another institution) but I'm sure one of the IET PRAs will comment on this.

    Yes, very happy to! 

    First, and really really important thing: You do not need a degree to become a Chartered Engineer. Every year I help almost as many non-graduates become Chartered as I do graduates. What a degree does often do is help you get an interesting job (and that will help you get Chartered), but only if it's a degree, and a job, that you're actually interested in.

    So I'd always suggest turning this around: think about what type of engineering you enjoy (including potentially in an area which you have a non-work interest in) and what type of people you want to work with. Use your experiences in your apprenticeship to think about which of the teams you work with you want to join. Talk to them to find out which subjects it would be useful to learn about to help get there. Concentrate on those areas in your studies (whether degree based or any other opportunities to learn).

    You've then got the best possible chance of doing well in your engineering career. And if you do well in your engineering career you can get the appropriate registration status - including Chartered. What's very often misunderstood is the professional registration is based on the competences you show in your day-to-day work. Provided you show those competences then it doesn't matter what your educational background is. It does mean that you may need to put slightly more evidence on your form if you have a non-accredited degree - but it's not a good idea to spend 4 years and many many thousands of pounds just to save you one day's worth of writing!!

    https://www.theiet.org/media/5502/11-professional-registration-myths-apr-2020.pdf

    What it is definitely worth doing is to look at job adverts in the area you might want to end up working in and see what actual employers are asking for. That's much more important.

    Very best wishes for an enjoyable and profitable career,

    Andy

Reply
  • 0 in reply to Mark Tickner
    Mark Tickner said:
    I'm not a PRA for the IET (but I am for another institution) but I'm sure one of the IET PRAs will comment on this.

    Yes, very happy to! 

    First, and really really important thing: You do not need a degree to become a Chartered Engineer. Every year I help almost as many non-graduates become Chartered as I do graduates. What a degree does often do is help you get an interesting job (and that will help you get Chartered), but only if it's a degree, and a job, that you're actually interested in.

    So I'd always suggest turning this around: think about what type of engineering you enjoy (including potentially in an area which you have a non-work interest in) and what type of people you want to work with. Use your experiences in your apprenticeship to think about which of the teams you work with you want to join. Talk to them to find out which subjects it would be useful to learn about to help get there. Concentrate on those areas in your studies (whether degree based or any other opportunities to learn).

    You've then got the best possible chance of doing well in your engineering career. And if you do well in your engineering career you can get the appropriate registration status - including Chartered. What's very often misunderstood is the professional registration is based on the competences you show in your day-to-day work. Provided you show those competences then it doesn't matter what your educational background is. It does mean that you may need to put slightly more evidence on your form if you have a non-accredited degree - but it's not a good idea to spend 4 years and many many thousands of pounds just to save you one day's worth of writing!!

    https://www.theiet.org/media/5502/11-professional-registration-myths-apr-2020.pdf

    What it is definitely worth doing is to look at job adverts in the area you might want to end up working in and see what actual employers are asking for. That's much more important.

    Very best wishes for an enjoyable and profitable career,

    Andy

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