Holdfast Training Services Trial Blog

Brendan and I attended an IMechE industry contacts seminar in Aberdeen yesterday and it was predominantly about the Monitored Professional Development Scheme (MPDS) but it finished with a presentation from one of the interviewers for CPR in Aberdeen.

The bottom line is it has made me feel much more confident about going for CPR later this year.

This is most useful to those going for CPR with the IMechE and also PEW as an organisation. However, I hope that there are a few useful snippets for everyone.

I will describe the key agenda points and the important points as I see them.

Agenda

Introduction – no synopsis required and the only key point is that the IMechE website now has an ‘on demand’ facility that allows access to lots of online videos of conferences and seminars from around the world.

Tips for preparing for an MPDS accreditation visit – The title is self-explanatory so I will just go into some of the key points:

• PEW is not suited to the MPDS at all. It takes a minimum of four years to complete the scheme and it is aimed at new engineers joining a company. It is absolutely the right thing to continue with the standard application form approach and students on PEW should not be completing MPDS online.
• Over inflated scores of competencies is not helpful – to have a 3/3 across the board when you clearly haven’t reached that level is a red flag. Should the candidate then fail CPR it is difficult to re-rate and develop. Mentors should scrutinise competency ratings and pick them up prior to exposing to the IMechE.
• Media attention. There should be more of a big deal made of those successful at CPR, both for the applicant and the mentor. Many companies employ a financial incentive but this would not work for PEW. However, increased media coverage may be helpful and is something that could be developed. The key part is that there needs to be more of a celebration of achievement.
• A good thing to put in your E competency on the application is that you are a volunteer to be a mentor. The IMechE are short of mentors and the panel look favourably upon this.

Running and MPDS scheme – This was from the perspective of the Royal Dutch Shell MPDS scheme administrator. Most of his points were not relevant to PEW but it was clear how much effort these other companies invest in CPD for their employees. He suggested that mentors should not have the same background as the candidate so it forces the candidate to explain things properly and it is also beneficial for the mentor to read about different subject matter. I appreciate that this would be difficult for PEW.

Professional review interview – This is where the real gems were. It was a presentation from David Baker who is a panel interviewer for those taking CPR in Aberdeen.

• The application. It is competence based so do not just list a career history but describe how you have achieved the competence.
• During the interview he expected the applicant to do 75% of the talking.
• Interview lasts 45 minutes:

Introduction                                           2 minutes

A, B, C and D competencies                  20 – 25 minutes

E competency                                       8 minutes

DAP                                                      5 minutes

Closing comments                                 2 minutes

• He went into more detail for competence E. You should cover the following:

Code of conduct. Read it and equate it to your organisations code of conduct.

Examples of continuous improvement. For example, this could be new technology that you have implemented or a new maintenance regime you’ve instigated.

Environmental responsibilities. This could be considering HSE aspects.

Continuous CPD. Annual appraisals, courses you’ve been on etc

Promote engineering. Primary engineer for example.

Ethical manner. You won’t need to provide evidence of this competency until 1 Jan 16 but it could be useful to do so. Mark Hill (hobbit108) posted a useful piece on this in an earlier blog.

• Talk about things as “I did this” not “We did this”
• The sponsor is key to scrutinising paperwork, we get this after AER6.
• There should be mock interviews. I know the civils have this but I’m not sure how formal it is for the E&M students. I know that Imran very kindly offered to come back and run them for our course before he left and I will be chasing him to make good on that promise.
• Take in photos or calculations that you can talk about, especially if you’re the type to get nervous in interviews.
• You need to have three out of the five competencies graded at 3/3, with the other two at 2/3.

Key challenges to passing CPR:

Not providing evidence of A + B competence

Not being able to talk about the detail of what was in the application.

Another thing that I took from this is that PET students are different to the normal CPR candidate. They tend to be more discipline based with much less management experience.

From a personal perspective, I feel that my previous military experience plus phase 1 and my experience at BP has certainly given me 3/3 in C, D and E. I think I am on my way to a 3/3 with the A competency and I will be okay reaching a 2/3 with the B.

I also think that the role of mentor is very important. For those of us going to Staff College it could be a useful way of maintaining the CEng flame. I for one would be willing to look over someone’s application, their competency record as they build it up and if I’m available I would help run a mock interview next year.