Chartership support

ROD's Pathway to Chartership Support Programme is designed for engineers and scientists who have successfully completed the graduate phase of their career and are ready to advance towards chartership status.

The programme provides the right combination of project experience, formal training and mentoring support to help you build the strong technical experience and professional practice skills you need to achieve the chartership title.  

Throughout the process, you will receive the support of trained mentors, experienced line-managers and technical knowledge champions whilst also working on challenging projects across a range of multidisciplinary teams, meeting clients and forming networks within the industry.

We'll encourage you to push forward and grow as an engineer, celebrating your achievements with you as you progress through the programme.

Mentoring

Your mentor will help you to assess the knowledge, skills and competencies you've developed in your career so far and identify areas that may need improvement.

He/she will help you to develop your personal development plan, which will set out clear and realistic objectives in respect of your further training and development needs and identify the actions required to meet each objective.

You will have regular appraisals with your mentor and/or manager, who will monitor your performance and keep you on track to achieving your chartership goal.

 

Senior management support

Our senior management team will review your chartership essays with you.  As chartered professionals, who act as chartership interviewers for Engineers Ireland and as sponsors of chartership candidates, they are well-positioned to help you.

 

Formal training  

Most of your learning will be on-the-job, supported by in-house workshops and seminars and external training courses, including:

• ACEI's Designing for Safety in Construction
• communications skills
• negotiation skills
• leadership essentials
• presentation skills
• effective writing skills

 

Part-time study

If you need to top-up your educational qualifications to meet the requirements for chartership, you'll be encouraged to undertake part-time study.

 

Experiential learning 

If you need to pursue an alternative route to meet your required educational formation for chartership, we'll facilitate the appropriate experiential learning, including offering you the opportunity to work on cutting-edge research projects, where required by your professional body. 

 

Information sharing initiatives 

• Lessons learned registers incorporating feedback from recent chartership candidates

• Knowledge-sharing workshops run by recently chartered staff members

• Information sessions with chartered professional bodies

• In-house training presentations

• External support material from chartered professional bodies

 

A collaborative team environment 

You'll build your personal and professional networks while gaining valuable experience in a collaborative team environment.

Rachel Harney, Senior Engineer, Bridges

I joined ROD in 2014 after spending two years working as a graduate engineer in an offshore engineering consultancy in Galway.  I became chartered in 2018.

I've worked on a wide variety of motorway schemes at ROD, including:

• Overbridges and underbridges and even a camel underpass in Qatar
• Feature bridge projects, such as the Seabraes tied-arch and cable-stayed beam bridge in Dundee 
• Urban schemes, such as the River Dodder Public Transportation Bridge and, more recently, the Waterford North Quays Strategic Development Zone (SDZ)

My involvement in the Northern Spire Bridge project in Sunderland and in feature cable-stayed bridge projects in India certainly helped my chartership application stand out.

During my chartership interview, the panel was impressed with the knowledge I accrued working on the design of the Northern Spire's 105m high pylon.

Matthew Ryan, Senior Engineer, Bridges

I joined ROD in 2015 having previously worked for Irish Rail, RPS Consulting Engineers and a civil contractor in Sydney, Australia.

When I first joined the company, my mentor helped me to identify the areas in which I needed to improve before I could progress my chartership application. He recommended several in-house and external CPD courses to me, and the company supported me in attending these. 

My chartership application was also given a very thorough review by one of our company directors, Marc Jones, which was very beneficial!

The sheer number and diversity of projects I have been involved in over the past few years was a big help when it came to applying for chartership. 

From inspecting masonry arch bridges to designing and analysing highway bridges, I was able to demonstrate that I had the required level of knowledge and experience to become chartered.