Hi,

I assume all the following applies to IPRA as it does to PRA, hopefully someone will correct me if I'm wrong. 

The supporter is quite separate from the (I)PRA, normally you can't make comments in support of the application as you won't know the candidate well enough. (Of course for candidates you know well you can be both (I)PRA and supporter, in those cases you will fill in a separate supporter's form when requested by the IET.) 

However you can give the candidate final comments if you wish that they can enter into the “Comments from PRA” box on Career Manager. I hardly ever do this, normally the only time I do is when the candidate has a very unusual background, where I feel it can be helpful to explain some of the discussions we have had to clarify why I think that background is worth considering as appropriate. 

But generally our role is simply to help the candidate complete their application in such a way that their competences come across as clearly as possible. As (I)PRAs it is not for us to decide whether the candidate has met the standard or not, or to recommend them for registration, that is for the panels to decide.

On your other points:

As far as I know the IET does not monitor (I)PRAs success rate, it would be very difficult to do so - we can only advise the candidates in how to complete their application, but whether their application is successful depends totally on whether the candidate meets the standard, which is out of our control. And also candidates don't have to take our advise (and sometimes quite dramatically don't - whilst still saying they have worked with a PRA). The way you'll actually know if you're successful is when applicants start recommending you to other applicants. 

Like most volunteering roles, there is no formal recognition of the (I)PRA role - there are many reasons each of us choose to do it, but it's not something you'd do for the recognition! As I've often been heard to say, of all the various volunteering roles I've done for the IET PRA has been by far the most enjoyable - you can do it at times to suit you, you don't have to sit in committee meetings, and it genuinely helps other members. (Oh, and it's also occasionally really good for networking if you get known as a helpful PRA, but I'd say that's very much a side effect and shouldn't be the reason for doing it!) I would - and do - recommend it as a volunteering role to all professionally registered engineers.

The recognition comes when a member whose application you've sweated over for a year (they know who they are ?) phones to say they've just got their CEng/IEng/EngTech…I definitely don't want to discourage the IET from thanking us more than they do, but that feeling's hard to beat!

Hope that helps,

Andy