How the IMechE is supporting firms in developing their graduates

Sandra Mulligan is the IMechE’s Business Development Manager for Scotland. She recently went on a site visit to Babcock, which has been running a monitored professional development scheme at its locations in Rosyth and on the Clyde for several years.

The purpose of Sandra’s visit was to deliver workshops for Babcock’s mentors, as well as for the re

Sandra says that workshops such as these are important for businesses because it allows employees to engage with the IMechE and get advice specific to their own situation.

“Staff on site really value the opportunity to speak with someone from the Institution face-to-face where their (frequently complex) queries may be answered instead of having to trawl through pages of information on a website and perhaps not find the information that they need or is relevant to them,” she says.

Mentors attending the workshop received Sandra’s expert advice on developing soft skills to be a capable mentor, as well as how to communicate effectively with developing engineers by using active listening skills and how to deliver feedback in a constructive way.

She also covered how to help mentees prepare for the “Professional Review Interview” after they complete the graduate scheme, as well as assessing work against the five UK SPEC competence requirements.

“I’ve made many visits over the years, but as staff in HR, training and engineering can move on frequently, and new recruits join the organisation, it’s very much a rolling programme of providing support and guidance as appropriate in order to meet their evolving needs,” she adds.

For the new graduates, Sandra advised attendees on how to write up quarterly reports and the academic requirements for IEng and CEng registration, including the Further Learning requirements.

“Attendees also discussed how to get the most out of their IMechE membership including the networking opportunities available through attending local events and the excellent range of webinars available free of charge on the IMechE website,” Sandra says.

A Babcock spokesperson commented “It was great hosting IMechE to talk to our employees about the benefits of membership and specifically the Monitored Professional Development Scheme (MPDS). Such workshops act as a great facilitator to help ensure that our employees have the right support to achieve their professional ambitions at Babcock.”