Our Associate, Jonny, was recently asked to present his pathway to Chartership for the North East Contaminated Land Forum Early Careers Group. He joined peers from Sirius, Wardell Armstrong and Hydrock in discussing how they found the chartership process for their respective professional bodies.
Chartership is the process of gaining accreditation from a professional body following assessment of competence, knowledge and understanding of your chosen field and the wider sector as a whole. Jonny and the other presenters discussed what they did to gain chartered status, the specific requirements of membership and key requirements to show competence as well as discussing the submission and interview process.
Jonny said:
“I found it rewarding to speak to the early careers group and hopefully people found it interesting, though I do appreciate it is a difficult topic to make interesting. I was hoping to demystify the process a bit as when I first started in the sector I didn’t really know what it was, how to get there or how to go about it.
It is a fairly long process making sure you are ready and your submission is right but I wanted to show that it is more about what you have done and the experiences you have gained rather than a set number of years experience.”
The main take aways from the presentations were:
- Do your research and speak to colleagues – Learn more about any professional body you might be interested in and chat to colleagues to learn about their experiences. Sometimes it may take a while to find the right professional body that fits.
- Engage with the professional bodies – attend some of their CPD courses where possible, browse any news articles/ social media/ website
- Prepare for the submission and look to attend one of the specific chartership courses
If you are in the early stage of a career in Contaminated Land related fields, for further information on the North East Contaminated Land Early Careers Group please contact [email protected].
