Engineers Australia offers several grades of memberships to the engineers, Charted Status being the highest and most prestigious of all. Achieving chartered status marks that the engineer has attained a significant position in their engineering career. It means that the engineer is one of the top most trusted, dedicated and reliable professionals in Australia. Engineers Australia not only assess the achievements of an engineer throughout their career but supports them to reach new heights in their professional careers. If you are a member of Engineers Australia aspiring to achieve the Chartered Status this guide will answer all your queries.

CHARTERED PATHWAY

Chartered Pathway is a path through which members of Engineers Australia can achieve the Chartered Status. The Criteria of this pathway is Engineers Australia Full Grade Membership or above. The Six Step Process of Achieving Engineers Australia Chartered Status:

1. Self-Assessment
2. Industry Review
3. Enrol for Chartered
4. Chartered Evidence
5. Professional Interview
6. Chartered Status

Self- Assessment

The first step for achieving CPEng Australia is self-assessment that comprises further steps. The first step in self –assessment is to select an occupational category. These occupational categories will be based upon the educational qualifications of the engineer. There are three occupational categories:

1. Professional Engineer
2. Engineering Technologist
3. Engineering Associate

The second step is to select an Area of Practice. It is nothing but the purpose of the engineer for which he/she is working. The members of Engineers Australia can select one or more Areas of Practice. One must see that the areas of practice are not the activities that are involved in the engineering profession of a member. For instance, some areas of practice are Chemical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Petroleum Engineering and Risk Engineering.

The third step is to rate yourself, as per the Engineers Australia stage 2 Competencies, as:

1. Developing – it means that you are still learning and need supervision so that you can practice engineering as required
2. Functional – it means you can work independently and fulfil the engineering requirements without any supervision
3. Proficient – it means you cannot only work independently but train and supervise others as well
4. Advanced – it means you have a high knowledge base and experience with which you can lead the teams, train and supervise people

You will be given competencies for which you need to provide a rating out of these 4 options. These competencies are related to three areas of engineering practice - Personal Commitment, Obligation to the Community, Value in the Workplace and your Technical Proficiency. There are a total of 16 competencies for which the members need to rate themselves.

If you have got a rating as Functional, you are eligible to apply for Chartered Status. Otherwise, you can exit the application process and choose for further development. After receiving the result of the self-assessment the applicants can keep it with them for their record. There is no limit on how many times a member wants to conduct self-assessment. One can undergo this test as many times as they want until they do not feel prepared for further steps.

Industry Review

The second step for Chartered Engineer Australia is getting feedback from the peers of the engineering industry. The applicants need to login for Industry Review and select an employer to form the list who will track the application and provide assistance. For the review, the engineers have to prepare Evidence Statements as per the Engineers Australia chartered competencies.

The Chartered Evidence is a combination of anything like emails, minutes, risk assessments, narratives etc that can prove that the engineer is competent as per the standards. At this step, the applicant just has to collect and prepare the documents and is not required to submit any.

Enrol for Chartered

In the third step of achieving Engineers Australia CPEng status, the applicant is required to provide their CV, CPD log and make payments for the chartered application. Here it is required that the applicant chooses their areas of practice and submits the industry review. The fee for Chartered Status is $ 1760 (inclusive of GST).

What is CPD?

CPD or Continuing Professional Development is a resource that helped the applicant engineer in enhancing their skills and progressing in their career. For instance, it could be conferences, training, volunteering, presenting papers, industry visit etc. Applicants need to provide a log of all such activities in the third step. Engineers Australia mentions the minimum CPD requirements of 150 hours over a time period of 3 years. Out of these 150 hours, there is further classification:

1. Areas of Practice(s) – 50 hours
2. Risk Management – 10 hours
3. Business and Management Skills – 15 hours

For the remaining hours, the engineers are free to conduct any activity that interests them. Those who are in the academic must be able to showcase at least 40 hours of industry involvement in three years’ time.

Chartered Evidence

Within the 3 weeks of Chartered Enrolment, the assessors call the applicants to have a discussion on the Chartered Evidence. Up to this step the evidence is not submitted to the assessors so the applicants can seek solutions of their evidence related queries. The assessors will also hold discussions about the Areas of Practice chosen by the applicant and their industry review results. The basis on this, they will suggest the applicants on what chartered evidence to choose. This step is not necessary in every case. Sometimes if the assessors feel that they need no discussion they can skip this step.

Professional Interview

Once the assessors will complete the assessment of the documents been submitted by the applicant, they will conduct a face to face professional interview. The interview would be of 1 hour and it would involve discussions about the evidence mentioned by the applicant. Sometimes the applicants are asked to give a presentation. Information about the presentation is shared with them beforehand.

Chartered Status

After the professional interview, the result of the chartered status is provided to the candidates via email. This confirms that the engineer has received a chartered status by Engineers Australia. The candidates are also sent the certification of chartered status through the mail.

Other PATHWAYS of achieving Engineers Australia CPEng: