On Friday 19th December, representatives of BG Trinidad & Tobago, Jonathan Kacal, Christopher Downes and Jason Look Yee, were keen to discuss and develop plans for an upcoming seminar to introduce the IET, the Local Network and the routes to professional registration with their engineers and technicians.



Both myself and Gerald Mendes, represented our network in this informal meeting to understand the specific needs of the BG T&T group and provide key insights into the specific activities and avenues that the LN and the IET can proviide the oil and gas company.



It was decided that the best approach would  be an open forum discussion between members of BG and the LN executives and that one of the key drivers and interesting topics for their personnel would be the road to chartership.  They have already noted an interest amongst their engineers, and this can also be accredited to the push from both Jonathan and Jason, who are both members of the IET.



Everyone noted and accepted that success in such a program would need the support from HR and there would be a need to develop a link between these activities and the ability to raise the professional levels of their engineers and technicians.



The BG graduate training program was highlighted as being an excellent system for developing the skills and experience levels of young engineers and guiding them, through the use of job specific matrices, to develop other skills, knowledge and behaviours that are needed for key positions in the organisation.  The technicians, however did not have this type of detailed system and this was the main theme of the meeting and how the IET could assist in their development.



As such, there was a need to develop the marketing for technicians to emphasise the benefits and increase their awareness of these systems, which would lead them to first wanting to apply for the TMIET membership of the IET.



A brief overview of the LN and an exchange of experiences with attendance issues in hosting seminars, enabled the group to develop a few solutions to attract a wider audience and create an engagement forum that would capture their interests.  One such idea was to encourage the existing members, for instance, the IET members and those who are also CEng and IEng registered, to indentify their interests in terms of types and themes of seminars and presentations and the LN would facilitate in the process.



A main point indentified was that CEng and IEng are internationally recognised and those persons are immediately known to be engineers, whereas the term "engineer" was not protected and anyone can legally refer to themselves as an "engineer".  Thus the greater need to push the registration of CEng and IEng as well as those for technicians.



Other areas discussed included the importance of CPDs and the facility made available to IET members, via Career Manager, for the recording, monitoring and review of professional development.  It was even highlighted that BG T&T could consider becoming a partner with the IET to develop specific CPD programs for the advancement and registration of the engineers and technicians.



The associated activities and networks, as the PATW events, the IET Women's Network, the Young Professionals Network and the STEM activities, were highlighted as being key to the continued development and generating interest in the BG T&T family.



Everyone concluded that the best approach would be to provide a short overview on the IET and the LN's goals and activities and then enable the BG personnel to discuss key areas with various members of the LN.



This was the first step in our relationship with BG T&T.