If having 15+ years of experience, everybody will expect you to be a senior leader in the engineering profession. Besides that, you would have also shown the 16 competencies necessary for CPEng Australia status many times in your career.
That’s why Engineers Australia has made it easier for senior professionals like you to apply for Chartered via an Interview. This pathway will help you get rid of the industry and formal assessment steps.
Having known this fact, let’s move ahead to know the eligibility criteria for this pathway.
Eligibility criteria for CPEng Australia for a professional with 15+ years of experience:
To be eligible, you must have the following:
- A minimum of 15 years of post-graduate experience
- Having had a major responsibility across your career including leading projects and teams
- Engineers Australia membership at the member level or above
How to apply to become a Chartered Professional Engineer in Australia:
If having fulfilled the above-given eligibility criteria, follow the four steps below:
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Pre-approval:
Create an expanded resume, which details major projects you have taken the responsibility for and your major attainments. It should have the positions you had, situations, problems, and opportunities you had. Besides that, you need to show the expert skills and knowledge you utilized to attain a positive outcome. Its purpose is to assure the evaluators that you have satisfied 16 Engineers Australia competencies related to your occupational category.
You need to include the names, positions, company, and contact details of 2 referees. One of the referees has to be able to verify your resume and qualifications. After that, mail your resume and referees to the authority requesting to apply for Chartered for 15+ years of experience.
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Self-assessment:
Afterward, the authority will mail you a self-assessment form to complete. So, complete the self-assessment form and mail it back to EA.
On the confirmation of your pre-approval, you will get another mail from the authority with a link. This link will allow you to apply via the EA portal.
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Prepare and upload documents:
The third step is to use the link you got in the mail and follow the prompts in the portal to upload:
- The resume you mailed to the authority with the details of your two referees.
- Proof of your continuing professional development (CPD). You need to have completed at least 150 hours of CPD over the last three years.
- A color-scanned copy of your photo identification. Aside from that, you also need to submit a passport or driving licence.
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Professional Interview:
A professional interview with an assessor of Engineers Australia is the last step to becoming a CPEng Australia.
EA will be in touch to fix a time for your professional interview with one of its assessors. After that, you will get an invitation to the online Teams or Skype interview. It will generally consume a few weeks for an interview to be fixed.
The interview will take nearly one hour and will include a wide discussion regarding your engineering career. The evaluator will see evidence you have satisfied the 16 competencies related to your occupational category. Besides that, they will interview to know your deep engineering knowledge and experience in your areas of practice.
It’s advice, not a must-do, to prepare a short presentation. It should help you introduce yourself and high the project and activities illustrating your attainments. At most six to eight slides are fine.
Application result:
You will get a confirmation mail in the EA portal after the interview. Using it, you will come to know the outcome of your Chartered application. The evaluator may also tell you the result of your application at the end of the interview.
If your application is successful, you will get your official Chartered certification in the email soon after.
Post nominals:
Having been qualified for a Chartered credential, you will be able to utilize a post-nominal after your name. You will get one of the following post-nominals, which is dependent on your occupational category:
- Chartered Professional Engineer (CPEng)
- Chartered Associate (CEngA)
- Chartered Technologist (CEngT)
Fees for CPEng Australia application:
The fee you apply for a Chartered with 15 years of work experience is $1925, which also includes GST.
To add an extra area of practice, the fee is $345 including GST.
Benefits of becoming a Chartered Professional Engineer with Engineers Australia’s registration:
You will get the following benefits registration with Engineers Australia as a CPEng:
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Worldwide recognition:
A professional engineer who has attained the Chartered status with EA will have global recognition. Their professionalism, work experience, skills, and educational qualifications will be given value worldwide. It means the engineer can work with organizations from all over the world. Here, the condition is that they have the necessary work permits.
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Leadership and career development:
Evaluation through the industry review process will help Chartered engineers grow their competencies based on a set of industry standards. For Chartered status, an engineer has to satisfactorily demonstrate that they fulfill all the 16 standard competency elements.
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Professional recognition:
A Chartered Engineer has recognition from professional bodies, government, and non-government institutions and companies across the world. Being a Chartered Professional Engineer in Australia will allow you to take a senior engineering position. In addition, you can also take a consulting role in any country.
