Institution news
Martyn Pitman BSc (Hons) IEng MIMechE started his engineering career as a boatyard apprentice and is now a Senior Engineer for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI). He is part of the design team that produced its new fleet of Shannon class all-weather lifeboats.
The RNLI encourages and supports all of its engineers to become chartered. When he applied for professional registration as an Incorporated Engineer (IEng) with the Institution, Martyn was also keen to see how far his training, qualifications and competences took him along the process to achieving chartership. He says a subsequent review of the tasks, skills and achievements that he has mapped on the Institution’s continuing professional development (CPD) online tool, Career Developer, helped him understand where he stood on his professional registration journey.
“When I applied for IEng I was also looking to see how close I was to being suitable for CEng. However, the outcome of the application didn’t make it explicit where I was coming up short. This made focusing my further learning more challenging. A recent audit of the CPD that I log on Career Developer has helped me understand what I need to do to come up to the standard.
“Importantly, it has also revealed areas where I have already done some relevant training or gained skills, but haven’t documented them. Therefore they have not been recorded as counting towards the competences needed for my chartered engineer application. It was an excellent process for highlighting skills and tasks that I had overlooked and has changed my approach to recording CPD.”
Martyn says that he mentors school students, undergraduates, Ministry of Defence students and others who come to the RNLI for training.
“I never used to document this, as it was quite informal and outside of my specified job tasks. However, as a result of the audit, I now realise this is a people and management competency, a learning process for myself, which enhances the engineering learning of the recipient, and I log it on Career Developer as such.”
Many engineers chart their CPD on their employer’s in-house database. Career Developer, the Institution’s online portal, can be used instead of, or in tandem with, an employer’s system. It helps you record and track your career progression quickly and easily, and is personal to you so it will stay with you throughout your career even if you change employer – a one-stop shop to track your step-by-step career goals and development.
Martyn explains that the detail that Career Developer provides has helped him map the stages towards his goal. Although an application form can be daunting to undertake, the real-time recording of his skills and development has made that task more manageable. He uses Career Developer regularly, dipping in and out in the time it takes to have a coffee, inputting headlines for speed, to which he can return and develop later.
“It’s flexible, allowing you to log one-line descriptors, or upload documents, to fit in with your schedule. When you have more time you can add the details. You’re not forced to stay logged-in to add extensive information, it tends to fit in quite nicely around other tasks.”
Martyn advises fellow engineers to: “Embrace what’s available to you. Use Career Developer to direct your CPD. It brings focus to what you need to attend to once you’ve filled in your learning. Even without any external assessment, you can see for yourself what the requirements are for your professional development targets, and it will help you map out some areas for development. It has really supported my goal of working towards chartership.”
Find out more about Career Developer.