Mutual Society
Company Training Schemes Accredited, says Bill Gaskarth (Accreditation Officer)
Gammon Construction Ltd (Hong Kong) was the first company to have their training scheme accredited. They presently have 8 trainees on the scheme working towards eligibility to apply for CGeol. Recently schemes from Atkins (UK), Arup (Hong Kong) and the Hong Kong Government (CEDD) have been accredited. The Atkins and Arup schemes are accredited for the individual offices that applied i.e. London and Hong Kong. Accreditation will be extended, and accreditation certificates awarded, to other offices of these international companies when an application is made by each agreeing to follow and use the accredited scheme.
Accreditation by the Society is aimed at developing a partnership with the companies. Trainees will apply for Chartership when they are judged to be ‘ready’, through collaborative discussions between the Society and the company, rather than when they have gained the minimum number of years’ experience. The Society will meet the company training officers on a regular basis to discuss the development of the trainees and will provide them with help and encouragement in the application process. To this end the Society will maintain a list of trainees in each company and will link with the individual training officers (and/or mentors) in each office to ensure that we are able to provide as much support as is necessary.
Failure to achieve Chartership at the first attempt (approximately 15-20% of applicants) has largely been the result of applications being made too early or not focusing on the Chartership criteria perhaps because of insufficient advice from mentors and sponsors. It is hoped that the links between the Society and companies through this accreditation scheme providing mentoring/coaching advice to all participants will result in better prepared applications and a reduction of deferrals. Where a candidate works for a smaller company without an accredited scheme then it is hoped that line managers and likely sponsors will make contact to gain advice on helping candidates develop their applications.