Chartered Engineer Portfolio

The training we provide aims to support an application early in your professional career for Chartered Engineer status. To understand your own professional development needs you need to learn the art of honest self-reflection. Personal development planning is a process which involves keeping track of your professional development as a researcher and reflecting on the skills that you acquire during your activities.

We recommend that you use the CEng Competence and Commitment standards to structure your review of your progress, identifying areas for future development and tracking your professional development with the support of your mentors and supervisors.

Chartered Engineers are able to demonstrate:

  • The theoretical knowledge to solve problems in new technologies and develop new analytical techniques

  • Successful application of the knowledge to deliver innovative products and services and/or take technical responsibility for complex engineering systems

  • Accountability for project, finance and personnel management and managing trade-offs between technical and socio-economic factors

  • Skill sets necessary to develop other technical staff

  • Effective interpersonal skills in communicating technical matters

What is competence?

Competence is your ability to carry out a task to a high standard. In this case, it is against the UK-SPEC standard. It is a combination of the right level of knowledge, understanding and skills. You can develop competence with a combination of formal and informal learning, training and experience. When you apply, there are five general areas of competence that are assessed:

  • Knowledge and understanding

  • Design, development and solving engineering problems

  • Responsibility, management or leadership

  • Communication and interpersonal skills

  • Professional commitment

What is commitment?

Commitment is the demonstration of dedication and engagement to the engineering profession, society and environment. When you apply you will need to show you have adopted a set of values and behaviours that uphold the high reputation of your profession. You will be required to provide evidence of:

  • Maintaining public and employee safety

  • Undertaking work in a way that protects the environment and contributes to sustainable development

  • Complying with codes of conduct, codes of practice and the legal and regulatory framework

  • Managing, applying and improving safe systems of work

  • Carrying out the CPD necessary to maintain and enhance competence in relation to duties and responsibilities

  • Exercising responsibilities in an ethical manner

  • Recognising inclusivity and diversity

  • Adopting a security-minded approach

  • Actively participating within the profession

You are encouraged to familiarise yourself and collate evidence for your portfolio - this is a summary of your achievements with evidence. Being able to identify, evaluate and record these skills will be very useful for your career.

  • Being aware of gaps in your knowledge and skills and having a strategy for remedying them will help you to anticipate and avoid obstacles to the successful completion of your research. In particular, the thoughts and ideas will help you to have more structured and meaningful discussions with your supervisor.

  • Applying for a job or preparing your CV. When you are putting together a CV or drafting answers to ‘competency-based’ questions on application forms you will need to think about how to provide evidence that you have the skills that an employer is looking for.

Most professional bodies now expect members to record systematically the steps that they are taking to keep their professional knowledge up-to-date and many major employers expect the same of their employees. In the case of professional associations and regulatory bodies keeping this kind of record may be a condition for continued membership/registration. Employers may use the record as a basis for making decisions about pay and promotion. Therefore, it is a good thing to get into the habit of evaluation, reflection and planning before it becomes compulsory.

Download the CEng guide here.