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Confusion over Development Action Plan for CEng Application

Former Community Member
Former Community Member
I understand as part of my CEng application, I have to provide a development action plan. The word plan suggests that it's a forward looking document that maps out my short term and long term goals and how I intend to achieve them, why, and by what timescale. I have a plan, I put together myself in a word document, a single page with 3 sections; Short, Medium and Long term, with 4 bullet points each, what, how, why, when.


Looking back at the guidance I see:
"You are required to provide a development action plan to accompany your application for registration.  This shows a demonstration of your commitment to maintaining and continuing your professional competence.  This does not need to be linked to an organisation and can be self-managed.  Your development action plan is not a record of past development – this will be evidenced in your application; this is a plan for the future with short and long term goals and how you are going to achieve them"


In particular note when it says "Your development action plan is not a record of past development", then when I look in the application bundle there is a template document called "Development Action Plan.docx", which has 2 sections:


"Section 1 Achievements since last Development Action Plan (DAP) or equivalent
(including report on actions agreed then)"


"Section 2 Development Actions agreed for next DAP period
(Capture any individual career plans and development activities agreed with line manager or human resources department.) Specify action, competence areas targeted and timescales."


There are 2 things I'm not clear on:

1) If it's a forward looking plan, what is the purpose of section 1? This doesn't sound forward looking at all, it sounds like a record of progress on previous action plans, which contradicts the guidance. Can somebody provide an example of what precisely should go in this box.

2) There's a signature at the bottom for my line manager, this have to be signed off in pen by my line manager? It's a commitment made by me to professional development, and from what I can tell seems to be a self reporting system, so i'm not clear why my line manager would be involved with this?

3) Do I have to use this form? Or can I use my own format provided it outlines what I plan to do over the short, medium and long term in terms of development.


  • 0
    Hi Daniel,

    You are right, there is a lot of confusion, but it is probably best to take a step back and think about what a DAP is in terms of career and professional development.

    What the IET are looking for in the DAP is what is not in the application, which as they say records your past development, or more accurately, records your current baseline of development. They are therefore looking at what your intentions are to maintain and improve your professional competence. Therefore the important information to provide (at the application/interview) is what you plan to do to develop in the near and medium term.

    However the text also say that it is a demonstration of your commitment to maintaining and continuing your professional development. This means that the DAP is not something that you show at your interview, complete the development actions, and then throw away. It is a living document and should be regularly reviewed even after you have achieved registration (and will probably tie in with your employers annual appraisals). Therefore as you complete actions you can move them from Section 2 to Section 1 and think about further development actions that can be added to Section 2.

    Therefore at the interview you may have only filled in section 2, but in five years time, provided things have gone to plan, all of section 2 will have moved to section 1 (or completely off the plan) and new items will have been added.

    Also with regard to the signature, if you decide to incorporate the plan into your employer's appraisal, the manager's signature is an indication of employer endorsement of your intentions but the bottom line is that this is your plan and it is for you to take forward, so a signature not needed. If you are saying that you intend to undertake a month long training costing £xxxx then a manager's signature indicating your employer supports this course of action helps, but in the end it is your choice.

    I am sure that others could explain this much better than I have just done, but I hope you can understand what the intention is.
  • 0
    Logically, if this is your first ever DAP, then section 1 must be empty.
  • 0
    HI Daniel,


    The Development Action Plan provided with the application download is an optional format, but if you are doing your planning in a different way then this is something you can provide separately this is just a suggested format for those seeking advice.  As Alasdair has said, there is the opportunity to use this as an ongoing document and this therefore gives you the opportunity to use it as a review of previous CPD and for the forward plan, if you have not used a similar format before then you only need to complete the second section and create a forward plan which I would recommend covers your short, medium and longer term plans.  Your short term plans could be for the next 6-12 months and are likely to be more detailed.


    It doesn't have to be signed off by a line manager or supporter, as this is just a template it just provides the guidance for what some members have previously asked for as a working document but you can use this as it suits you and of course if you have your own format them please feel free to use this.


    I hope that helps, but if you have any further queries then please don't hesitate to get in touch.


    Regards,


    Kathryn
  • Former Community Member
    0 Former Community Member
    Alasdair Anderson:

    Hi Daniel,

    You are right, there is a lot of confusion, but it is probably best to take a step back and think about what a DAP is in terms of career and professional development.

    What the IET are looking for in the DAP is what is not in the application, which as they say records your past development, or more accurately, records your current baseline of development. They are therefore looking at what your intentions are to maintain and improve your professional competence. Therefore the important information to provide (at the application/interview) is what you plan to do to develop in the near and medium term.

    However the text also say that it is a demonstration of your commitment to maintaining and continuing your professional development. This means that the DAP is not something that you show at your interview, complete the development actions, and then throw away. It is a living document and should be regularly reviewed even after you have achieved registration (and will probably tie in with your employers annual appraisals). Therefore as you complete actions you can move them from Section 2 to Section 1 and think about further development actions that can be added to Section 2.

    Therefore at the interview you may have only filled in section 2, but in five years time, provided things have gone to plan, all of section 2 will have moved to section 1 (or completely off the plan) and new items will have been added.

    Also with regard to the signature, if you decide to incorporate the plan into your employer's appraisal, the manager's signature is an indication of employer endorsement of your intentions but the bottom line is that this is your plan and it is for you to take forward, so a signature not needed. If you are saying that you intend to undertake a month long training costing £xxxx then a manager's signature indicating your employer supports this course of action helps, but in the end it is your choice.

    I am sure that others could explain this much better than I have just done, but I hope you can understand what the intention is.


    Understood, in which case I think I'll just fill out section 2 as this is the first DAP I've submitted. I just didn't expect an instruction to make my DAP forward looking and then see a section in the application asking for it to be retrospective. I understand the same template is reused periodically as part of submitting evidence for professional development as part of the obligations for CEng, or else for whatever reason people are submitting DAP forms prior to CEng. Either way it seems it's fine for me to submit only section 2 based on the feedback as this is my first DAP, and in future, some elements of section 2 will move to section 1.


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