Construction Industry Council Practitioner’s Career...

CIC - Practitioner’s Career Advancement Toolkit, © Construction Industry Council 2011

Construction Industry Council

Practitioner ’s Career Advancement Toolkit Managing your career development, guidance for Built Environment Professionals.

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About the Construction Industry Council (CIC) and ConstructionSkills

The Construction Industry Council (CIC) represents the views of the

industry (from a professional, managerial and technical viewpoint) in

ConstructionSkills – the Sector Skills Council for construction.

ConstructionSkills is a partnership between CIC, CITB-ConstructionSkills

and CITB ConstructionSkills Northern Ireland.

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Contents About the Construction Industry Council and ConstructionSkills

a. Introduction

b. Self Appraisal

c. Managing your own career development

d. Managing your own CPD

e. Proving your competence

Appendix - List of sources of further sources of help and guidance.

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This guidance has been developed by the Construction Industry Council

(CIC) to assist you with:

Assessing your capabilities

Planning and managing your career

Enhancing your employability

Developing your professional competence

The following sections can be completed either as individual

assessments or concurrently. As an employee/employer this toolkit can

be used to in conjunction with established process and procedures for

individual performance reviews.

CIC is responsible for the development of Professional, Managerial and

Technical National Occupational Standards (NOS). NOS describe the

competencies required by an individual to carry out a particular job

function relating to their job roles to a specified industry benchmark.

The competencies relating to each of the built environment disciplines is

reflected in the NOS and covers:

Town and transport planning

Statutory control

Design disciplines

Conservation and maintenance

Contracting supervision and management

Project management

Property disciplines and building services disciplines

A. Introduction

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What is Self Appraisal?

Self Appraisal is about assessing

your own capabilities and

personal characteristics. National

Occupational Standards (NOS)

provide a framework and

language with which to describe

them.

Objective

To provide you with an objective

view of your own capability:

expertise, competence,

motivation and ability to learn

To help you create a benchmark

against which to measure your

own performance, in the

absence of a formal job

description.

What are the benefits?

Self Appraisal is a vital component

of managing one’s own

professional development. It will

help you to:

Plan and manage your career

Improve your job performance

B. Self Appraisal

Improve your capacity to learn

Increase your self confidence

and present yourself more

effectively for example via a CV

or an interview

Identify and take advantage of

job and learning opportunities

Obtain support from mentors

and managers

Manage and provide support to

others

As a practitioner having a good

level of self awareness means

that you are more likely to:

Be committed to improving

yourself and your colleagues

performance

Develop yourself to your full

potential

Reliably manage your work and

careers

Provide good role models to

others

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6 Steps to Self Appraisal

1 Clarify Your Personal Aims Focus on your objectives - how

much is your self appraisal for:

Improved work performance,

Enhanced career development

Or personal growth?

Record your aims.

2 Manage Resources for Self Appraisal Find sources of help. Gather

insights from others inside and

outside the organisation

according to personal

circumstances. Record the results.

3 Clarify Your Personal Aims Look at your CV, performance

appraisal records, portfolios of

evidence and significant events.

Assess values, interests,

competences, motivation and

contacts. Know yourself.

4 Assess your own competences Assess yourself against identified

Occupational Standards visit

http://www.cic.org.uk/standards/ .

Identify strengths, weaknesses,

opportunities and threats (SWOT

analysis).

Analyse your job, Use diagnostic

tools. Identify your priority

competences in terms of relative

importance of career development

needs and ease of access/

opportunities for achieving them.

5 Assess what helps and hinders your development Identify your learning style and

forces for and against personal

change. You will find lots of

information and assessment tools

online to assist you with this.

Here is a link to one from Mind

Tools http://www.mindtools.com/

mnemlsty.html

6 Review and improve Identify the benefits. Record the

results and improve the process.

Diagram 1 - The 6 Steps to Appraisal

http://www.cic.org.uk/standards/

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This section has been devised to

help you plan your career

development in a systematic way

taking into account individual

aspirations, industry opportunities

and professional requirements.

Career management is an

organised way of planning your

personal development by taking

into account the areas of

competence that will meet your

own interests and capabilities, the

changing skills needs in the

industry and the requirements of

qualifying systems.

C. Managing your career development

What are the Benefits?

If you manage your career

development, you should be able

to:

Learn and develop more

effectively by focusing your time

and effort on priority areas.

Enhance your employability

Satisfy the requirements of

recognised qualifying bodies,

including relevant professional

institutions

Identify and take advantage of

job learning opportunities

Develop yourself to your full

potential

Increase self confidence in

managing you own development

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1 Identify short and long term goals Setting short and long term goals,

is an essential stage in planning

your journey to the career that

you want.

For those entering the world of

work, this might focus on

progression through an academic

and or practical training route

along with initial professional

qualification and development.

For those already in employment,

this might focus on a career

change into a different sector/

occupation, a lateral move within

your current occupation to

specialise in a particular area, or

development to a higher level role

in the same occupation.

2 List and assess your own abilities, skills and interests

Look at your Record of

Achievement, previous

qualifications, work experience

and curriculum vitae.

Career Management in 6 Steps

A Skills Analysis Matrix (figure 1)

is provided on the following page

or you may wish to devise your

own. Do you feel that you have

skills or abilities that need further

development?

Assess your interests, skills,

motivation and identify your

strengths and weaknesses.

You mind find it useful to list this

on a separate piece of paper.

Diagram 2 - The 6 Steps to Managing Your Career

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Skills Analysis Matrix 1 - Assess your skill and interests

My current study path, situation or job role: Example, Architect’s Assistant P2

My goal: Example, low carbon housing specialist/ architect/ practice associate

Your Interests

Consider and record what you would like to be doing

Your Motivations

Consider and record what drives you and why you want to achieve your goal

Your Related Abilities/ Skills

Consider whether you are currently aware, knowledgeable, skilled or competent

How do you rate your current skill level

Now that you’ve identified you skills and abilities how do you rate them. Rate from 1‐5 where 1 = Weak; 2 = Quite Weak; 3 = Neither Weak or Strong; 4 = Quite Strong; 5 = Strong

Potential Areas for Action

The ratings that you’ve assigned to your skills will reveal your areas of weakness and strengths. Note them here.

Example Designing zero carbon social and affordable houses and apartments

Improving the living conditions of social tenants/residents

Awareness of social housing requirements, space standards, Lifetime homes, BREEAM and building regulations.

4 Need to get better understanding of Fire Safety and Sprinkler Systems/ Part B updates plus changes to Part L for new homes

Managing and leading a design practice

More responsibility and the opportunity to share my vision/more money!

Awareness of basic business practice

Minimal people management experience at this stage

2 Gain better understanding and experience of people management skills

Diagram 3 - example of a Personal Assessment Table - Skills Matrix 1

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3 Identify professional requirements

Professional and Occupational

requirements are set out by

professional bodies with

additional support from Sector

Skills Councils working in

partnership with employers.

In order to identify the range of

competence, occupations,

required qualifications, areas of

learning and progression routes

contact the organisation that

relates to the occupational area

you are in or may want to join.

A list of organisations are

provided in Appendix A of this

guide.

It is worth making particular note

of any references to industry

National Occupational Standards

and National Vocational

Qualifications/Scottish Vocational

Qualifications. NOS, NVQs and

SVQs contain detailed information

related to your current and

potential future job roles which

has been split down into

individual job functions.

NOS covering the entire built

environment sector can be found

at http://www.cic.org.uk/

standards/

NOS covering your specific

occupational disciplines can be

found at http://

www.ukstandards.co.uk/Pages/

index.aspx,

You may also find it useful to

contact a careers adviser, personal

contacts, industry careers

information, use diagnostic tools,

your professional institution and

current or potential employers.

Skills Analysis Matrix 2

My goal: example low carbon housing specialist/ architect/ director

Professional and Occupational Requirements

Your relevant professional body for example the Royal Institute of British Architects and the Sector Skills Council (ConstructionSkills) will list their occupational requirements or Standards visit www.cic.org.uk/stanrdards to view CIC’s generic standards.

Please note: This is an opportunity to go beyond Skills Analysis Matrix 1 and identify occupational skills gaps.

Requirement Reference

The generic Occupational Standards explore task and competency in great detail ‐ for this task start by using the descriptions labelled the “Key Role”

How would you rate your level of ability in relation to the Professional/ Occupational Requirement Strong, Average or Weak

Action to be taken

There are many ways to tackle skills gaps ‐ your action could include:

Attending a course Specific CPD Shadowing an expert Going on secondment

Mentoring

Taking on a voluntary role etc.

Example Plan, coordinate and manage sustainable project development processes

CIC/ NOS B2 Average Attend CPD Event on Sustainable project processes

Lead the development of organisations within the context in which they operate

CIC/ NOS F1 Weak Request the opportunity to shadow, senior staff twice a month to gain understanding of the business.

Diagram 4 - example of a Professional Requirements Assessment Table





http://www.ukstandards.co.uk/Pages/index.aspx









http://www.cic.org.uk/standards/standards.aspx?start=23




















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With NOS you can explore all of

the functions relating to the

higher levels of the sector. The

Standards can be viewed by

occupation, qualification and

generically. The generic

arrangement is explained below:

The Key Purpose describes why

the industry exists

The Key Role explores what

needs to be done to achieve the

Key Purpose

The Key Areas set out the

functions required.

The Unit titles further define

and describe individual functions

Individual National Occupational

Standards set out the

Performance Criteria and

Evidence required to show

competence.

To the left is an extract from the

View the Standards page on the

CIC standards website. The

generic standards can be viewed

as a ‘tree’ - for more information


standards/astandards1.aspx

Diagram 5 above, shows how the NOS are structured into layers each one more detailed

than the last.

Diagram above shows how the NOS are arranged generically on the CIC Standards

website.

http://www.cic.org.uk/standards/standards/astandards1.aspx




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Diagram 7 - Example matrix for your plan of action 4 Plan your development

You should now have a clearly

defined set of goals, an analysis of

where you are now (Skills Matrix

1) along with a list of gaps you

have identified from NOS or

professional requirement

information (Skills Matrix 2).

Using this information identify the

potential sources of learning and

work experience (e.g. academic

courses, training programmes, and

employment) and follow the

appropriate application processes,

you may find it useful to add your

Action list to a time related

programme.

Identify whether you can gain

maximum value for your learning

and development by

simultaneously following parallel

qualification assessment processes

such an NVQ Diploma/SVQ other

qualification.

5 Track your Progress

Use Occupational Standards as a

benchmark for targeting and

measuring your progress – in

terms of knowledge acquired and

work experience gained.

Record evidence of all

assessments against the

Occupational Standards.

6 Monitor and review

At suitable intervals (we suggest 6

- 12 months) review your progress

by assessing your plan for action

(see an example sheet above,

once again reviewing current

abilities, circumstances, goals and

achievements and identify next

steps.

My Plan for Action

My goal: example Low carbon housing specialist/ Architect/

Action When Progress Impact

Need to get better understanding of Fire Safety and Sprinkler Systems/ Part B updates plus changes to Part L for new homes

June 2011 Requested CPD event by my practice

Now planned for July 2011

Have revised designs for new housing, based on guidance given on Fire Safety, mitigating need for sprinkler system

Gain better understanding and experience of people management skills

August 2011 Will raise team leader role likely to be available within forthcoming small scale housing project

Attend event on Sustainable project processes

Ongoing Practice agreed to send my on a Seminar hosted by ACME on 13/08/11

Gained valuable CPD and add knowledge to bid applications for new work. Now considering further study of subject including BIM.

Request the opportunity to shadow, senior staff twice a month to gain understanding of the business.

Ongoing Have already started shadowing senior managers and taken part in bid work.

Have improved understanding of fee bidding and resourcing work

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D. 10 Steps to Managing Your CPD Objective

To help individual carry out

Continuing Professional

Development (CPD) in a

systematic way taking into

account individual aspirations,

business needs and professional

requirements.

What is it?

CPD is systematic development to

enhance your effectiveness as a

professional (see the User’s Guide

Glossary for a more formal

definition). It includes on and off-

the-job learning, continuing

formal/informal training and

excludes initial professional

training.


If you manage your own CPD you

should:

Learn and develop more

effectively by focussing you time

and effort on priority areas

Enhance your employability and

career development

Satisfy the requirement of your

professional institution

1 Clarify Aims

Understand the central aims and

principles of CPD. Clarify personal

aims.

2 Indentify the Personal

Recognise the role of CPD in

professional membership. Find out

your Institutions evidence

requirements . For steps 3 to 6

refer to section 3 of this

document (Self Appraisal). Relate

to Occupational Standards as a

benchmark to measure against.

3 Find sources of help

Access help and guidance, refer to

your professional institution (a list

of institutions and their websites

can be found in the appendix of

this document).

4 Select appropriate Occupational Standards

Identify the relevant Occupational

Standards. Visit http://

www.ukstandards.co.uk/Pages/

index.aspx for all standards and

www.cic.org.uk/standards for CIC’s

generic standards relating to

professional, managerial and

technical disciplines.

5 Appraise you personal situation

Analyse your strengths and

weaknesses; review personal and

work experiences.

6 Identify competence needs and goals

Clarify the competences you will

need. Set development goals for

your current job, future roles and

personal aspirations.

7 Plan CPD

Make a systematic plan with

“SMART” Specific, Measureable,

Achievable, Relevant and Timely

objectives and target dates.

8 Implement CPD

Implement your plan, taking

opportunities that arise,

integrating learning with work.

Use a learning log.

9 Record CPD

Uses of records for assessing

results, evidence of professional

competence; formats for

recording CPD.

10 Monitor and review

Review the plan and process of

your CPD. Review with others.










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E. Proving Your Competence

Objectives

To give you practical advice on:

Compiling and maintaining a

Standards-based portfolio of

evidence of competence

Tailoring your portfolio to gain a

national qualification

Identifying areas where your

competence could be improved

What is it?

A portfolio of evidence can be

based on your real day-to-day

work activities.

It can include authenticated

documents and other material

and products like samples,

models, photos and recordings.

(There are instances however

when NVQs diplomas/SVQs allow

material generated from, for

example, a case study, to be used

as valid evidence.)

A portfolio of evidence can be

used for professional membership

review.


Qualification, especially vocational

and professional ones, are

becoming more important when:

Changing jobs

Proving competence to a

potential client

Complying with statutory

requirements for safety critical

functions

Reducing the cost of

professional indemnity insurance

Complying with in-house and

client/customer QA systems etc

A portfolio of evidence is useful

for:

NVQ diplomas/SVQs,

CPD

Performance appraisals

Promotion/ selection

The National Record of

Achievement

Redeployment and transfer to a

new job

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1 What are you doing now? If you do not have a personal

development plan decide which of

your job functions are significant.

Identify evidence to show your

competence.

2 Choose appropriate units

Identify sources of advice inside

and outside your organisation.

Choose the appropriate

Occupational Standards and Key/

Core Skills for your work-role and

prioritise them. Check whether all

the elements apply.

3 Identify the evidence required Each Standard has two evidence

specifications. The first, the

Performance Evidence, identifies

direct performance evidence that

it is possible and feasible to

collect from normal workplace

activity.

This has been identified directly

from the Performance Criteria,

which may be:

Product Evidence: tangible

results - what the candidate has

produced (e.g. Reports,

drawings, minutes of meetings

etc.)

The 8 steps to proving your competence

Process Evidence: Observed

activity - the way in which the

candidate acted (e.g. a

presentation to a client).

The second specification is the

Knowledge and Understanding

Evidence (K&U). This sets out

topic/ subject areas found in each

Standard. These areas have been

defined by focusing on and

referencing to, the Ranges within

the Standard (where most

technical detail is found). The

areas either focus on a single

Range or two or more Ranges

combined where they relate

together.

4 Prepare Assessment Plan

Start with just one unit. What

types of evidence can you give

from your normal work activities?

What opportunities could furnish

more evidence? Start to collect

old evidence early. Make a

working plan to identify how

much evidence will be sufficient

and where items of evidence can

be used efficiently to meet more

that one requirement.

Identify where an item of

evidence can also be used to

satisfy the requirement of more

than one if the Occupational

Standards.

5 Collect the evidence

Discuss plans with your Line

Manager, work-based Recorder,

Mentor or Assessor. Collect past

and current evidence. Ensure

efficiency and sufficiency.

6 Fill the gaps

Compare the evidence against the

Occupational Standard. Do you

need more evidence or more

competence (more/different work

experience and or more learning/

development)?

7 Submit units for Assessment

Submit a unit as soon as possible.

Present the evidence

appropriately. Make the assessor’s

task easier by cross-referencing

evidence to the Occupational

Standards. Identify where an item

of evidence can also be used to

satisfy the requirements of other

Occupational Standards.

8 Review and improve

Learn from first attempts on how

to improve. Has it all been

worthwhile? What Units do you

want to do next?

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For further information on the

formal recognition or

accreditation criteria and

processes laid down by relevant

external bodies visit their links

below:

Building and Spatial Design

CIAT Chartered Institute of Architectural Technologists

LI Landscape Institute

BIID British Institute of Interior Design

RIBA Royal Institute of British Architects

ACA Association of Consultant Architects

Planning

RTPI Royal Town Planning Institute

CIHT Chartered Institution of Highways & Transportation

Management

CIOB Chartered Institute of Building

APM Association for Project Management

ICWCI Institute of Clerks of Works and Construction Inspectorate

Appendix

Engineering

ICE Institution of Civil Engineers

CIBSE Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers

IHE Institute of Highway Engineers

ISTRUCTE Institution of Structural Engineer

CIPHE Chartered Institute of Plumbing and Heating Engineering

ABE Association of Building Engineers

Surveying and Asset Management

RICS Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors

CQSA Consultant Quantity Surveyors Association

LABC Local Authority Building Control

ICES Institution of Civil Engineering Surveyors

BIFM British Institute of Facilities Management

Technical and Teaching

BRE BRE

CEBE Centre for Education in the Built Environment

BSRIA Building Services Research and Information Association

NHBC National House-Building Council

http://www.ciat.org.uk/

http://www.landscapeinstitute.org/

http://www.bida.org/

http://www.architecture.com/

http://www.acarchitects.co.uk/

http://www.rtpi.org.uk/

http://www.iht.org/

http://www.ciob.org.uk/

http://www.apm.org.uk/

http://www.icwgb.org/

http://www.ice.org.uk/

http://www.cibse.org/

http://www.ihie.org.uk/

http://www.istructe.org.uk/

http://www.iphe.org.uk/

http://www.abe.org.uk/

http://www.rics.org/

http://www.cqsa.co.uk/

http://www.labc.uk.com/

http://www.ices.org.uk/

http://www.bifm.org.uk/

http://www.bre.co.uk/

http://cebe.cf.ac.uk/

http://www.bsria.co.uk/

http://www.nhbc.co.uk/

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http://www.cic.org.uk

http://www.cicskills.org.uk/

The Construction Industry Council (CIC) is the representative forum for the professional bodies, research organisations and specialist business associations in the construction industry. It is also a partner in the Sector Skills Council for Construction.

www.cskills.org/ ConstructionSkills Sector Coverage: Construction.

www.assetskills.org/ Asset Skills Sector Coverage: Property, housing, cleaning services, parking and facilities management. Asset Skills works to improve productivity, efficiency and effectiveness in facilities management, housing, property, planning, cleaning and parking.

www.euskills.co.uk/ EUSkills is the sector skills council for Energy and Utilities and has a range of information on disciplines relating to power, water, gas and waste management.

www.summitskills.org.uk Summit Skills the sector skills council for Building Services Engineering has a careers and progression information for those considering a future in related disciplines such as heating and ventilation engineers, gas fitters and much more.

http://www.lantra.co.uk/ Lantra look after the skills needs of land based and environmental industries and

professions. There are 16 industries which are grouped around: Land management

and production, Animal health and welfare , Environmental industries

http://proskills.co.uk/ Proskills UK is an employer-led organisation that represents the interests of the industries that make up the process and manufacturing sector to government

http://www.citbni.org.uk/Home.aspx CITB-ConstructionSkills Northern Ireland as an Industry Training Board and Sector Skills Council their role is to encourage the adequate training of those employed or intending to be employed in the construction industry.

Sector Skills Councils

Sector Skills Councils (SSCs) are independent, employer-led, UK–wide

organisations designed to build a skills system that is driven by

employer demand.

http://www.cic.org.uk/

http://www.cicskills.org.uk/

http://www.citbni.org.uk/Home.aspx

http://www.cskills.org/

http://www.assetskills.org/

http://www.euskills.co.uk/

http://www.summitskills.org.uk

http://www.lantra.co.uk/

http://proskills.co.uk/

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Construction Industry Council

26 Store Street

London

WC1E 7BT

www.cicskills.org.uk

www.cic.org.uk

t. +44 (0)20 7399 7400

f. +44 (0)20 7399 7425

For more information contact

David Cracknell

Director of Skills and Lifelong Learning

[email protected]

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