Personal Opinion and Feedback
During my time in the Armed Forces, I have successfully completed an engineering apprenticeship and earned a BEng (Hons) degree with a First-Class classification. Additionally, I hold qualifications in project management at the operational level and health & safety at the Technical IOSH level. I also have extensive experience working as a senior maintenance engineer and manager, holding a higher technical level of expertise than most at my rank.
However, I have come to realise that the Armed Forces do not value my IEng registration and professional qualifications during appraisals or at promotion boards. Despite holding a professional qualification, it appears that the promotion process doesn’t consider or acknowledge IEng, leaving me questioning the value of achieving such qualifications in-service.
Furthermore, approximately 90-95% of engineers at the HND/FdEng level and at my rank competing for promotion are not professionally registered, which only reinforces my belief that holding IEng status within the Armed Forces is essentially pointless and outdated. I find it particularly disheartening that I am more qualified than my direct superiors, who are still two years away from achieving IEng status and must complete additional engineering assignments to do so.
The Armed Forces seem to be overlooking the highly qualified engineers they already have, which raises a critical question: Is it any wonder that skilled engineers are leaving for civilian roles where their qualifications and experience are truly valued?
