What is Professional Registration?

Registration as a professional Incorporated or Chartered Engineer increases your employability, as it shows potential employers the level of competency you have achieved. It also demonstrates to others that you uphold the highest standards of engineering and are committed to building on, maintaining and refreshing your knowledge and skills as your career develops.

Claire Maycock, Business Development Manager, talks about professional registration

Working towards this professional registration early in your career will set you on a path of lifelong learning and development.

Use your Career Developer  account to plan and track all your professional development progress throughout your engineering career.

Initial Professional Development (IPD)

Initial Professional Development describes the first few years that lead to your registration as a professional engineer. There are two aspects: academic qualifications, which are assessed by learning outcomes, and professional development, in which you demonstrate a level of competence.  Typically, two years of work experience after graduation will be necessary to gain Incorporated status, and four years of experience necessary to become a Chartered Engineer, although these time frames are not prescriptive and everyone is assessed on a case by case basis.  IMechE offers a range of tools and opportunities to assess and record each competency that you have accomplished during your IPD.

Recording development

Part of your Initial Professional Development will involve keeping a record of your progress during the first few years after graduation which will help you to:

• Keep track of exactly what you have done
• Understand UK-SPEC (UK Standard for Professional Engineering Competence, the Engineering Council’s competency framework for Professional Registration)
• See what areas you need to develop as a professional

Monitored Professional Development Schemes (MPDS)

The Monitored Professional Development Scheme (MPDS) is the IMechE’s preferred, approved and quality controlled route for graduate engineers to complete their initial professional development.  MPDS has been designed in conjunction with industry, and over 300 engineering companies run an approved IMechE MPDS scheme for their employees, to promote high standards of engineering practice and demonstrate a highly skilled personnel base.

MPDS ensures that engineers develop to contribute to a company’s success with technical and business competence, innovation and interpersonal skills.  This is achieved by setting goals against the competencies laid out in UK-SPEC, and recording your progress online as evidence of the skills you have achieved.

You will be assigned a Mentor, who will provide support and advice throughout the process of becoming professionally registered.  Your Mentor will act as a great point of reference as they are either Chartered or Incorporated Engineers themselves, and are invaluable for offering advice based on first-hand experience.

In this way, MPDS will give structure to your application through:

• Regular meetings with your mentor to discuss and plan your progress
• Reports on your experiences every three months help you to keep track of your achievements
• An assessment of your engineering competence each year to evaluate your progress

Once you have fulfilled all of the competencies required for the relevant level of professional registration (IEng or CEng), you will be able to apply for a Professional Review Interview (PRI) with a panel of peers at IMechE to discuss your achievements. They will determine if you have met the professional competences required to be registered as an Incorporated or Chartered engineer.

Associate Member

To register onto the Monitored Professional Development Scheme, you must  be an associate member of IMechE.  It’s simple to join and you can immediately use the post nominal ‘AMIMechE’ after your name on CV’s, job applications etc, as well as take advantage of membership benefits, such as use of the Information and Library Service, delivery of Professional Engineering magazine every two weeks, and much more.

Professional Review Report Route

If you are not registered on an accredited Monitored Professional Development Scheme (MPDS) programme, then you will be following the Professional Review Report route towards professional registration.  This is sometimes referred to as the Traditional Option.

If you don’t find a place on one of the Monitored Professional Development Schemes you are not at a disadvantage.  It is still possible to benefit from the full network of the Institution, as we work closely with other professional engineering institutions and the Professional Development website has been developed in partnership with them.  This website provides you with all you need to know about planning, doing, recording and reviewing your professional development and is a useful reference for those not registered on MPDS.

Continuing Professional Development (CPD)

The journey doesn’t end on completion of the development programme and achievement of registration as IEng or CEng.  Once you are professionally registered you will have an obligation to carry on a programme of Continuing Professional Development.  This could involve keeping up to date with advances in your profession or developing your knowledge of a specialist area. The IMechE offers a range of opportunities ranging from courses, lectures and events, with access to a network of similarly qualified and experienced experts in each specialist field. This keeps professional engineers up to date on the latest technological developments, maintaining their knowledge and supporting their careers as they develop.

Your Continuing Professional Development programme will see you experience and learn new and varied aspects of the profession which will help you to:

• Broaden your knowledge over the engineering spectrum as a whole
• Develop and improve general knowledge and management skills
• Meet, educate and understand fellow professionals