Phase 3 · Complete your IPD
Career Appraisal
How experienced engineers complete IPD from work already done: what it is, what it asks for, and what the outcomes mean.
Who this is for:Candidates at any stage
A Career Appraisal is a way to complete your initial professional development if you already have the experience to meet the attributes. You demonstrate it through a written submission rather than through a structured training scheme.
What it is, and who it is for
Institution of Civil Engineers
- It is normally used by those who have not been able to join an ICE Training Scheme or mentor-supported training, or who have worked in the industry for some time but never applied for a professional qualification.
- You send a report demonstrating your experience against the attributes, with appendices, a CV, and CPD plans and records. This shows you have the same level of competence as someone who completed structured IPD via a Training Agreement at the same grade.
- To apply you must have the required academic qualifications and enough work experience to demonstrate the attributes at IEng MICE or CEng MICE.
- Once you have passed, you can apply to sit the Professional Review or the Apprenticeship End Point Assessment.
- Passing means you have the qualifications and experience to apply — it does not guarantee success at the Professional Review.
- Career Appraisal report length
- 5000wordsAt either IEng MICE or CEng MICE level.
- Career Appraisal assessment frequency
- monthlyMonthly deadlines are published on the key dates page.
From Career Appraisal Guidance, Institution of Civil Engineers.
The four sub-pages
The Career Appraisal is substantial enough to be treated as its own process rather than as a single step, so it is set out across four further pages:
- Eligibility — who it suits, who cannot use it, and what has to be true before you start.
- The report — how the Career Appraisal report differs from a Professional Review report, and it does differ.
- Assembling the documents — the submission format, and the limits that get applications returned.
- Outcomes — the four possible results and what each means.
Get a mentor, even though you do not have to
ICE is direct about this: it is not compulsory, but it strengthens your application, because a mentor can verify what is in your report and must sign the cover page if you have one.
The mentor can be any senior engineer able to make the commitment to guide you. Ideally they are an ICE Member at the equivalent grade or higher, they understand ICE's procedures and standards well enough to assess your competence, and they are familiar with your work.
There is a second reason to have one, which ICE's guidance points at from a different direction: if you have a mentor for your Career Appraisal, they should, if possible, be your lead sponsor for the Professional Review afterwards. Finding one person who can do both, early, removes the single most common delay in the whole process.
How long the whole thing takes
Before you start
Educational base confirmed, and a mentor found
Both take longer than expected, and both can stop the application.
Two to six months
Mapping evidence and writing the report
Up to 5,000 words, or 3,000 for a progressive top-up, plus appendices, a two-page CV and three years of CPD records.
Monthly deadlines
Submission
Career Appraisals are assessed once a month. The deadlines are on ICE's key dates page.
After assessment
One of four outcomes
Proceed; resubmit with more information; attend a verification meeting; or the assessment cannot be completed.
Then
Apply for the Professional Review
Your result letter is submitted with that application as evidence of IPD completion.
Questions to ask yourself
Am I eligible to use this route at all?
You cannot apply while on a Training Agreement or registered for mentor-supported training, and there are several situations where ICE points you elsewhere.
Do I have three years of CPD records?
A personal development record covering at least the last three years is required, at around 30 hours a year. If you have kept nothing, that is the constraint on your timing.
Who will be my mentor — and could they be my lead sponsor afterwards?
ICE suggests they should be, if possible. Finding one person who can do both removes the most common delay in the whole process.
Related pages and tools
- Career Appraisal: eligibilityWho the Career Appraisal suits, who should use a different route, and what must be settled before you start.
- Career Appraisal: the reportHow the Career Appraisal report works — including the one respect in which it differs from a Professional Review report.
- Career Appraisal: documentsEverything that goes in, the format ICE requires, and the limits that get an application returned unassessed.
- Career Appraisal: outcomeThe four possible outcomes, what each one means, and how a pass feeds into the Professional Review application.
- AttributesWhat ICE assesses, how the Incorporated and Chartered expectations differ, and how to read the standard without drowning in it.
- SponsorsWho can sponsor you, what the lead sponsor's role actually involves, and how to approach both without leaving it late.