The Eng Exec Competencies provide a set of criteria for firms to use to establish Business and Leadership ability, in parallel to evaluation of the technical or engineering capability of personnel.

At an Industry Round Table for PDP Partners held on Friday April 13, Julie Hammer gave a presentation on the Competencies, and the value of the related evaluation elements, supporting the Eng Exec process. Industry was well represented by operational management and HR personnel.

It became obvious from the presentations and discussions that there were significant advantages for corporations in adoption of the Competencies as guiding lights for development and evaluation of all personnel - not just engineers. The Eng Exec Competencies provide a set of criteria for firms to use to establish Business and Leadership ability, in parallel to evaluation of the technical or engineering capability of personnel. Some minor revisions may be needed to apply to non-technical areas but the business and leadership elements embodied in the Competencies were recognised as broadly applicable to all areas of a corporation.

They represent an available set of criteria for many firms who have not yet had the resources or time to develop their own internal career and personnel development guidelines or who have commenced, but not concluded, work in this area.

Even firms with already established criteria found they had good correlation and provided potentially more detailed approaches than their existing criteria.

Another significant advantage became obvious - that of having a broad industry based set of criteria in common use. This could greatly facilitate the understanding and evaluation of capabilities of personnel moving between assignments and corporations (government and private) within the workplace.

The Competencies were also seen as highly applicable for use as development planning tools for point in time evaluation of the level reached by an employee - not just as a final evaluation to determine if a person may be awarded the title of Eng Exec. Evaluation against the Competencies can be used early in an employee’s career to establish key areas of focus for future job rotations to obtain the necessary experience and skills, as well as to identify specific training or the possible need to pursue further education.

Engineers Australia has agreed to make the Competencies freely available to corporations without charge, provided that acknowledgement is given to the source of the material. This action should greatly facilitate their broad adoption across industry with many potential flow-on benefits as outlined above.

Specific training courses may be developed (within or external to Engineers Australia) but it is important to see the Competencies as capability building and evaluation tools, not as another training plan.

D M Ford Vic CELM Committee May 11, 2007