HOW TO PREPARE YOUR APPLICATION FOR CHARTERED
1. Pre-Enrolment In addition to this guide, you will need to refer to the other resources & competency standard documents on the Chartered Resources and Help section of the Engineers Australia website. The echartered online system itself contains information buttons throughout to help you understand each step. At any time if you have questions, experience technical issues or just need help, please call our Member Services team on 1300 653 113 or email memberservices@engineersaustralia.org.au 1.1 Eligibility to Achieve Chartered? Chartered Status is open to current members of Engineers Australia only. You must join Engineers Australia as a Member through our online application process or through one of our Mutual Recognition Agreements and be Stage 1 competent. For more information on Stage 1 Competency please refer to the relevant section of the Engineers Australia website. Applicants must demonstrate suitable English language skills as part of the Assessment process for Chartered. Assessors will use IELTS Band 7 as a guide. If necessary, the Assessor may seek an English language test in accordance with IELTS guidelines to satisfy Band 7 in each of the four components (Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking) in either the Academic or General Training module. 1.2 Which Pathway will you choose? The Professional Development Program (PDP) Pathway The PDP pathway is for engineers wanting staged submission and assessment and support throughout their Chartered journey. A PDP Participant is generally Organisation-sponsored, where the organisation has an agreement with Engineers Australia and supports the fees payable as well as providing other support to help you progress through the competencies such as access to mentoring schemes, in-house workshops and guidance. You can elect to be Self-Sponsored to access the pathway benefits of staged submission and a draft claim if you are not part of a PDP Organisation. Unlike the other pathways, the PDP can be started if you only hold the grade of Graduate. You have the option of submitting one draft claim to get some general feedback before you prepare formal claims. On the PDP you respond to the full set of 16 Competency Standards, provide a CV, CPD Log & Engineering Experience Record. You can submit your Claims in minimum bundles of 4. On the PDP, you also have access to tailored resources and communications throughout your journey. The Engineering Competency Report (ECR) pathway The ECR pathway is for engineers who have been in the workforce for some time practising engineering and who are more confident in their competence to respond to all 16 Competency Standards, provide your CV & CPD Log and provide an Engineering Experience Record in the one submission. You must hold the grade of Member or above to access the ECR pathway. Page 2
The Mature Experienced Engineer (MEE) pathway The MEE pathway is for engineers who are operating at a senior level and have developed their engineering skills over a period of time. Generally, you must have over 15 years of engineering experience post-graduation to be approved for this pathway. On the MEE pathway, you prepare claims for 11 of the 16 Competency Standards. To enrol on the MEE pathway, you must be a member of Engineers Australia at the grade of Member or higher. At enrolment you need to demonstrate via your CV and a CPD Log that you have the required experience including at least five years employment in a position(s) of major responsibility in the design or management of important engineering work. Upon submission of the enrolment application, a National Assessor will review your suitability to proceed on the MEE pathway. They may ask for further information to make their decision. If you are unsuccessful you will be automatically enrolled onto the ECR pathway as an alternative. You will also need to submit an Engineering Experience Record that clearly shows your competence through work experience of the remaining 5 Competencies were formal claims are not required. Other Options Through echartered, applicants in all three pathways can seek Registration outcomes on the National Engineering Register and receive a Letter of Assessment for RPEQ to support your separate application for RPEQ status with the Board of Professional Engineers Queensland (BPEQ). For further information about these Registration outcomes, please refer to the information on the Engineers Australia website. If you are a non-member, but are seeking the Letter of Assessment for RPEQ, you only need to complete your response to the Stage 2 Competencies through echartered and the ECR pathway if you are seeking Registration in a Special Area of Practise. If seeking the Letter of Assessment for RPEQ in a General Area of Practise, it is recommended that you use the National Engineering Register application process instead. There are a few options outside of echartered including through our Mutual Recognition Agreements (MRA); for Special Areas of Practise and Special pathways such as for our Defence members of certain Rank & Qualification. If this is you, please refer to the information about these other options available on the Engineers Australia website. 1.3 How do I pay for my application? Payments are made at the Enrolment, Submission and Professional Interview request stages of echartered by Credit Card. Accepted credit cards are Visa, Mastercard and American Express. Payments made on echartered are non-refundable. Once payment is made, a confirmation appears on the screen and receipt will be emailed to your designated email address. Please view the fee schedules on the website for details of the fees payable at each echartered stage. Organisation-sponsored PDP Participants do not need to pay their own echartered fees. The fee amount shown will be sent to their PDP Coordinator for approval, then invoiced to the Organisation direct. Organisations may not support all fees. If this is the case, then the PDP Participant must either make internal arrangements for reimbursement or swap to Self-Sponsored to make payment themselves. Page 3
2. Enrolment 2.1 Pathway chosen, let s enrol A. Go to www.engineersaustralia.org.au B. Login to the member portal using your Engineers Australia Member number and password (reset if necessary) C. Access the echartered system through the menu. D. Once inside echartered you will be presented with the enrolment screen. Only options that are applicable to you will be visible for selection. E. Click on the Enrol button next to your chosen pathway. F. Complete the enrolment form including a passport style photo, Area of Practise selection, agreement to the terms and conditions and other information as required applicable to your pathway. G. Pay the fee required or request sponsorship (PDP only) H. You are enrolled! Note once enrolled, you cannot easily change your pathway to Chartered. Please contact Member Services if you experience any issues with your enrolment or pathway selection. Page 4
If you have enrolled as an Organisation sponsored PDP participant, your sponsorship request will be sent to your Organisation s PDP Coordinator for approval. They have 14 days to approve or decline your request. If the request is not actioned within this time, you may need to submit a new request. We recommend PDP Participants talk to their PDP Coordinator prior to enrolment to understand any special requirements that may be in place. A confirmation email and a receipt if payment was made will be sent to you following your successful enrolment. Compatible Browsers: The following recommended browsers can be used for echartered: Chrome 22 (but earlier versions as far as 20 can be expected to work) Firefox 15 and 16 (but earlier versions as far as FF10 can be expected to work) Safari 5 and 6 IE 9 Can be used but not preferable: IE 8 - may encounter some technical issues IE 7 - some pages may display slightly differently to other browsers, and the clickable region of controls like checkboxes may be smaller and less well aligned than in other browsers Page 5
3. Submission & Application After enrolment, it is time for the work to start. We recommend you take your time to attend an information session or workshop in our Divisions to understand the Chartered writing process and ask questions of our Assessors. We also recommend you take some time to read the Australian Engineering Competency Standards Stage 2 applicable to your occupational category, take note of any requirements relating to Special Areas of Practise chosen and read our writing guidance material and examples on the website. The more planning you do upfront, the easier and more successful you will be in completing the submission phase. 3.1 What am I writing to? All applicants must demonstrate their competencies against The Australian Engineering Competency Standards Stage 2. The Stage 2 Competency Standards for each occupational category consist of 16 Elements of Competence. Indicators of Attainment have been provided to guide applicants as to the engineering work that is likely to be considered as demonstrating each Element of Competence. Applicants need to address each Element of Competence as an Engineering Competency Claim through examples of work that involves engineering problems and engineering activities as described in the Stage 2 Competency Standards under the heading Demonstration of Competence. Please note that if you are seeking Chartered in Leadership & Management, Systems Engineering or Cost Engineering, you need to address the separate Competency documents provided. Chartered applicants and applicants for registration will also need to declare that they are willing to abide by the Engineers Australia Code of Ethics. It is essential that you read and review the Code in preparation for your Chartered application and the Professional Interview. Stage 2 Competency Standards documents can be downloaded from Chartered help and resources section of the Engineers Australia website. 3.2 What will I need to write, prepare and have verified within echartered? A. Engineering Competency Claims (ECCs). One claim per applicable Stage 2 Competency Standards is required (16 for PDP & ECR, 11 for MEE) B. Engineering Experience Record C. CV (No verification required) D. CPD Log (No verification required) A reminder that for MEE applicants, you will have already provided your CV & CPD Log at enrolment. Note you can check the progress of all of your tasks by hovering your mouse over the symbols on the right-hand-side of each Task. Page 6
3.3 Preparing your Application A. Re-access echartered after login to the member portal B. Review the task list presented on the right hand side of the screen. C. Select a Competency from the list to begin - you can complete the Competencies in any order. You can save and edit at any time until a submission is made. It is recommended that you leave the EER, CV & CPD Log upload until all Competencies have been completed so that these entries are up to date at the time of submission. D. For the Competency selected, write directly or cut and paste from a separate document, your Claim into the Segment box. Please start your Claim with a title and date range of the project/experience being described. Use the tool bar to apply appropriate formatting. Up to 3 segments can be completed for the one Competency. You may choose to use the segments to break up your claim into separate projects that need separate verification of the content written. Note there is a word limit of 700 words which applies for the full claim regardless of number of segments used. Save regularly! E. Once you are happy with your claim, you need to verify it: i. Select the Submit for Verification button and add the verifier details. ii. Send for verification. The text you want verified will be sent via email to your chosen verifier. Your verifier has 14 days to make their verification. If the verification is successful, your Claim will move down the task list under Items ready for Assessment. Please note that if you have more than one segment to be verified, all segments will need to have been verified before it will move down the task list. If you edit the claim again, you will need to resubmit it for verification again. Page 7
If the verification is not successful, it will remain in your top task list. You will receive an email from your Verifier giving reasoning for the un-successful verification. Revise your Claim and resubmit for verification again. Please note that if you have more than one segment to be verified, all segments will need to have been verified before it will move down the task list. If you edit the claim again, you will need to resubmit it for verification again. If you are unable to achieve verification, you can attach a Statutory Declaration in instead. Please select the option I do not have suitable verifier for this Claim. Please use the form available with the Chartered resources & help section. Please read the Verification guidelines available within the Chartered resources & help section to ensure an appropriate verifier is chosen. F. Repeat the writing and verification step for all Competencies. G. Once you have enough Claims appearing under Items Ready for Assessment you can submit them for Assessment: i. For PDP Participants, when you have 4 or more ready to go, you can submit for assessment. Note when you have the final 4 or less to submit, you will at this point, also need to submit your EER, CV & CPD Log. ii. For ECR participants, you need to have all 16 ready to go + your EER, CV & CPD Log iii. For MEE participants, you need to have all 11 ready to go + your EER. You will know you are able to submit items as a Submit Items for Assessment button will appear at the base of your task list. H. To submit, click on the Submit Items for Assessment button. Then on the page presented, tick the items to be submitted and press submit. I. Payment for the submission is required. If an organisation sponsored PDP participant, a request will be sent to your PDP Coordinator for approval. Approval must be given before your Claims are forwarded to our Assessors for review. J. PDP Participants only can submit one, one time only, draft Claim for general feedback purposes. To submit a draft claim, select any from the task list, prepare your claim in the segment boxes and then press the Submit as Draft button. Verification of the draft claim is not required. 3.3.1 Preparing your Engineering Experience Record, CV & CPD Log The Engineering Experience Record (EER) is a verified record of your engineering employment. It asks you to detail your engineering roles and responsibilities. The EER is a separate document from your CV. It is a verified record of your recent engineering employment. In the Role Description field, you need to provide a detailed description of the job roles you have held and your responsibilities and achievements for each role. Page 8
The EER needs to be verified. You can use the same Verifiers that you set up to verify your Engineering Competency Claims (ECCs) or you can set up a new Verifier(s). For PDP and ECR pathway participants, your EER needs to cover at least the last three years of your engineering experience. For the MEE pathway participants, your EER needs to cover at least the last five years of your engineering experience. The experience claimed needs to be full-time equivalent engineering experience in the occupational category in which you are seeking Chartered Status, namely Professional Engineer, Engineering Technologist or Engineering Associate. The experience deemed satisfactory is normally expected to have been gained after graduation, although experience prior to graduation will be considered if suitable, i.e. the period during which a post-graduate engineering degree is completed can be included as part of satisfactory evidence, as long as the experience is in the occupational category in which Chartered Status is sought. Each Employment position held during the claimed period needs to be verified. If you have had multiple positions above the segments allowed (3 for PDP/ECR, 5 for MEE), please include in one segment and attach a statutory declaration for verification. MEE participants also need to demonstrate that their EER at least infers competence in Elements 12-16 in The Australian Engineering Competency Standards Stage 2. These are the Elements in the group Technical Proficiency. Annotations that reference the Element number and title can be used. The upload of your CV is self-explanatory please ensure it is up to date prior to submission. You need to provide a Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Log of activities covering a minimum of 150 hours over the past 3 years. Please refer to the CPD guidelines available on the Engineers Australia website to prepare your Log. 3.3.2 Extra Notes about Verification For more detail about suitable Verifiers, please refer to the Verification Guidelines available within the Resources & Help section of the Chartered webpages. Engineers need to have each Engineering Competency Claim (ECC) and their Engineering Experience Record (EER) verified by a responsible senior engineer, who is preferably a Chartered Member of Engineers Australia. Verifiers need to be able to attest that the work you have written about is your own. Please ensure you contact your Verifiers prior to setting them up on echartered to check that their contact details are correct and forewarn them of your request. When you fill out your verifiers details, you will have the option to send them your personal information so they can contact you if needed. Page 9
Once you have sent a verification request, you have the option to cancel the request if required. If you click the 'Cancel verification' option on the segment you have sent, the claim will unlock for you to edit, and re-send. Your Verifier will be informed that you have cancelled the request. If your Verifier does not action your request after 14 days, your verification request will automatically expire. A reminder email will be sent to your verifier after 7 days. Engineers Australia will conduct random checks on Verifiers, or contact Verifiers if they want to discuss their verification of your ECC or any Verifier information provided. A Verifier has the option to accept or decline your request of them for verification. If they decline they add a comment that is included in the email notification back to you. If you receive an outcome that any segments of your Claim have been declined, then you need to have them verified by a different Verifier. If you need to rework your verified ECCs for any reason, you can choose to unverify them in echartered. Participants need to make all reasonable efforts first to have their work verified, i.e. at least try and contact their previous supervisor, client or colleagues if they have changed jobs or cities. As a last resort they can attach a Statutory Declaration to their claim. This is a legally enforceable document whereby you declare the truthfulness and accuracy of your work. Participants can use a Statutory Declaration in lieu of a Verifier for up to five ECCs only. A separate Statutory Declaration must be used for each applicable ECC. If you need, for example, to use a Statutory Declaration to cover two project examples in one ECC, simply write the examples one after the other in the one box and upload one Statutory Declaration. 3.4 Assessment Once you have submitted your Claims (PDP) or your full application (ECR & MEE), your submission will be forwarded to one of our National Stage 2 Assessors. They will review your Claims against the Stage 2 Competency Standards and Indicators of Attainment and provide you with an Assessment. When an assessment outcome has been determined, you will receive an email with your Assessment Report. The Assessment Report will contain the assessment outcome against each Claim of either Competent or Not Yet Competent. Feedback and General Comments will be provided, especially in the result of a Not Yet Competent outcome where guidance for your resubmission will be given. For any Not Yet Competent Claims, you will need to provide a resubmission. To resubmit, select Edit next to your Claim, revise as appropriate, resend for verification and then resubmit. Payment is required for resubmission. Please note if you are on the PDP Pathway, any revised Not Yet Competent Claims can only be submitted for re-assessment when you have another 3 claims ready so that you meet the submission requirements. Page 10
3.4.1 Assessment Timeframes Participants can anticipate the following estimated turnaround times for their assessments: Draft ECC (PDP only) - 2 weeks MEE Enrolment Review & Decision - 2 weeks PDP Submission of 4+ ECCs - 4 weeks ECR Submission - up to 6 weeks MEE Submission - up to 6 weeks Professional Interview - 6 weeks after the request is made, depending on personal circumstances. (It may take up to two weeks for Division Representative to contact you to book your interview. This is not in addition to the 6 week time frame.) If you have a concern regarding the assessment received or have not received an Assessment outcome in line with the Assessment timeframe guidelines, please contact Member Services on 1300 653 113 or memberservices@engineersaustralia.org.au 3.5 How long should I take to complete my application? For the PDP, progress is expected within a 12-month period and for ECR & MEE participants you should aim to fully complete your application within 12 months. Engineers Australia will contact you to encourage progress and we also encourage you to contact us at any time to seek help or ask questions. Don t forget to refer to our help and guidance material on the website or to attend our Chartered presentations and workshops. You have access to the Individual Participant Progress Report (IPPR) at any time via the Reports tab in your echartered portal. This report will show your enrolment and submission information as well as the detail of your submitted Claims and Assessment outcomes. Page 11
4. Professional Interview & Chartered Outcomes 4.1 I am ready for my Professional Interview A. All my submission items have been assessed as Competent B. Complete the Professional Interview Request within echartered you will be asked to confirm the Areas of Practise desired and confirm your preferred location of your Interview. C. Pay the Professional Interview Fee - includes Registration outcomes if selected. D. Your Journey using echartered is now complete. Your Professional Interview will happen either face to face or via Skype as arranged. 4.2 The Interview Your Professional Interview will be with an expert panel, comprising of at least one National Assessor and one technical expert in your practice area. If you have more than one practice area another panel member may attend. The interview is your opportunity to present to the panel and for them to explore and confirm your claims of competence. The interview is typically one hour and held in your local Division however the interview may be extended up to 1.5 hours. You should be ready to spend 2 hours in the interview process from arrival to departure. If you have any special requirements, such as living in a regional area or overseas, are moving overseas or any other requirements, these will be discussed with you by the Professional Interview administrator when your interview is organised. If you have also applied for registration in a Special Area of Practice outside of echartered first, you should complete your written submission before arranging your Professional Interview through echartered, and advise the administrator that you are also wanting to sit your interview in the Special Area at the same time. Depending on the Area of Practice this may not be suitable. You must bring with you to the Professional Interview: Photo Identification Drivers License, Passport or National Identity Card The original witnessed and signed Statutory Declarations used in the Submission phase of echartered if you were not able to get independent verification of your ECCs. A copy of your echartered Individual Participant Progress Report (IPPR) should you need to refer to it. You can run a copy through your 'Reports' tab on your landing page. Page 12
4.2.1 Format of the Interview A 15 minute presentation You are required to make a formal uninterrupted fifteen-minute presentation in support of your echartered Submission to the panel. In your presentation, talk about your career development and your roles and challenges, then talk specifically on your major projects. Include some of your current experience, but do not attempt to cover your whole career or evidence included in your Submission the 15 minutes. You should focus on examples of problem solving, judgements and decisions made by yourself. Thirty minutes of questions and answers The panel will ask you questions about your presentation and echartered Submission. You should be prepared for: testing Engineering Competency Claims examining how you address the overall Elements of Competence ensuring your evidence is drawn from engineering problems and engineering activities discussing aspects of your engineering career discussing Engineers Australia Code of Ethics Applicants for registration in a specific area of practice should note that the Assessment Panel has to be satisfied that you have met the Stage 2 Competencies in a general area of practice and provided evidence of your practice in the specific area 4.3 When will I be Chartered? If your Interview is successful, you will be advised at the conclusion of your Interview of your success. Your official Chartered, Registration Certificates and Letter will be sent directly to you within 6 weeks of your Interview. If you are not successful, you will be provided with advice and either set a follow on exercise or a second Interview. You do have the right of Appeal and you will be advised of the standard Appeals process as required. Page 13
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