CIOB builds clearer path to chartered careers

From 1 July, there will be a change in the process for joining the CIOB. Applicants will no longer be able to apply for membership at the non-chartered grades of ICIOB (Incorporated) and ACIOB (Associate). Instead, experienced candidates and graduates who are not yet ready to undergo the Professional Review to become chartered (MCIOB) will join at a new entry-level grade of Applicant CIOB.

Also from 1 July, qualified members who currently hold ICIOB or ACIOB status will be invited, by letter from new CIOB president Chris Chivers, to upgrade to full chartered membership, and a range of pathways to achieve the full MCIOB qualification have been mapped out for them. However, anyone who chooses to delay will still be able to use the ACIOB and ICIOB post-nominals until 30 June 2025.

Originally put forward in 2012 by the institute’s Members’ Forum, and endorsed at an extraordinary general meeting in November 2014, the shake-up is a radical rethink of the three-level grades system that was put in place in the late 1990s.

The aim then was to encourage less-experienced professionals to use the non-chartered grades for personal development. But as CIOB deputy chief executive Bridget Bartlett explains, the effect was often confusion over what being a “CIOB member” meant, which potentially diminished the value of chartership in the eyes of the wider world.

Bartlett tells Construction Manager: “We’re a chartered professional body, holding two chartered designations [chartered builder and chartered construction manager], and as such it would be reasonable to assume that the majority of our members are fully chartered. The non-chartered grades were introduced as transitory grades, but we found people decided to stay at those grades, where the post-nominals [ACIOB and ICIOB] caused confusion.

“So we wanted to make sure the public and the industry has more qualified professionals to draw on, and also that there’s less confusion about people’s status. At the moment we’re expecting employers and the public to distinguish between the grades.”

The restructuring has not been without controversy: some non-chartered members feel their qualifications have been devalued. But Bartlett says comments on LinkedIn and Construction Manager’s website have not translated into complaints or a decline in membership.

“We haven’t had any negative feedback, and there’s been no impact whatsoever on subscription patterns. In June there has been a peak in demand prior to 1 July, and then we’ll look carefully at what happens in July to October.”

Compelling case

Addressing non-chartered members and prospective applicants, Bartlett makes a compelling case for investing the effort.
“We think there’s incredible value in being chartered. It’s also about giving people who may not have any formal, academic qualifications the opportunity to have a qualification that is benchmarked at degree level,” she says.

Employers can gain a competitive advantage in bidding for work, she points out, while some simply prefer chartered candidates because of their commitment to continuing professional development and ethical behaviour.

Bartlett also highlights a third dimension: the benefit to project outcomes in the wider built environment. “If you improve the pool of talent available to the industry, and if you’re recruiting from a pool of chartered people, their qualifications will benefit the standard of delivery of the built environment, so that also benefits the public. It doesn’t serve the industry or public well to have lots of people sitting in non-chartered grades – you need your ambition to be developed.”

For those that want to put themselves to that test, the institute offers a tailored plan for each applicant, with the aim of bringing them to the point of submitting their application within three years.

“It’s like an escalator: we provide them with the support and programmes and they gradually step up the escalator. For some, it’s a short ride. For some, it might take longer,” says Bartlett. In fact, of the 11,000 members at non-chartered grade, the CIOB estimates that 7,000 have enough experience to be chartered.

A new section of the CIOB website details these routes, which are open to "all types of construction professionals, from surveyors to conservationists, engineers to HR specialists, designers to lecturers".

There are now several routes to achieving MCIOB, including:

• Non-chartered candidates with industry and management experience can apply by completing a Professional Review form, which asks for evidence of knowledge, skills and experience. The application has to be verified by a line manager, client or construction professional.
• EPAR is geared to individuals who have 10 years’ experience in the industry, are working at a senior level, but have no degree (or other level 6) qualifications. It involves writing an extended report, then completing a one–hour oral exam.
• Candidates with no degree and fewer than 10 years’ experience could follow the new Chartered Membership Programme. This consists of four modules, which can be studied via a range of training providers or independently. It is a level 6 qualification, equivalent to a degree.
• Anyone holding an Pearson Edexcel level 7 NVQ diploma in construction senior management or built environment design
  and consultancy practice is considered to have already met the management standards for membership, and only needs to demonstrate their ethical probity.
• Graduates from CIOB-accredited degree courses can follow the Professional Development Programme.

Bartlett is particularly proud of the new Chartered Membership Programme, which replaces the old exam-based Experienced Practitioner Assessment route: “One hundred and sixty people took the assessment in June – people are seeing we’ve removed some of the old barriers.”

The CIOB hopes that the variety of routes to chartership will ultimately help to boost membership. But, as a registered charity, it is not pursuing that goal for its own sake. “The earlier you achieve chartership, the more the industry, the public, built environment and yourself benefit,” Bartlett concludes.