Toolkit and reference
Supervising Civil Engineers and Delegated Engineers
The two roles in the ICE Training Scheme: what each is accountable for, and how to do them well.
Who this is for:Supervising Civil Engineers and Delegated Engineers ·Employers and training administrators
The SCE is personally and professionally accountable to ICE for their responsibilities under the Training Scheme — and ICE is clear that although the employer nominates them, SCEs are primarily responsible to the profession.
The Supervising Civil Engineer
Institution of Civil Engineers
- You are responsible for controlling, coordinating and planning the trainee's initial professional development, and for making sure they get the understanding, knowledge and experience to meet the attributes at their target level.
- Although nominated by their employer, SCEs are primarily responsible to the profession. You must be in a position to manage conflicts between the needs of the employer and the needs of the trainee, and to ensure sufficient resources are available for training.
- Specific responsibilities: keeping up to date with Professional Review, End Point Assessment, membership and training requirements; checking and approving the Training Agreement application and the fee; ensuring trainees have access to the scheme and are fully briefed; monitoring training throughout; providing written comments on attribute experience and CPD and carrying out a regular review, preferably quarterly; carrying out and recording the annual appraisal in IPD Online; and maintaining contact with the ICE Membership Recruitment Team.
- Validating CPD means assessing the benefits gained, not merely certifying attendance.
- You should not be responsible for more than six trainees, or up to ten if you appoint one or more Delegated Engineers.
- You may also appoint, train and manage DEs, and carry out an interim appraisal or partial completion if a trainee is about to leave.
- The annual appraisal record should not simply list activities or include bland statements such as 'a satisfactory year'. Where gaps occur, record them and explain why.
- After completion, you should continue to advise and support the trainee, review their submission documents, and help them prepare — ICE notes that SCEs usually also sponsor their trainee's application.
- Trainees per Supervising Civil Engineer
- six, or up to ten with one or more Delegated Engineers
- Development reviews during a Training Agreement
- 3months, preferablyCarried out by the SCE or a Delegated Engineer, recorded in IPD Online.
- Formal appraisal by the SCE
- 1per year, at leastThe trainee starts and completes the first part before the SCE gets access.
- Registering Training Agreement completion
- 8weeks, allow up toA Professional Review application is rejected if completion has not been registered with ICE.
From ICE Training Scheme & Guidance, Institution of Civil Engineers.
The Delegated Engineer
Institution of Civil Engineers
- DEs carry out routine reviews of a trainee's progress towards the attributes, and are responsible for day-to-day mentoring within the structure defined by the scheme and the SCE.
- DEs are appointed by the SCE, who is responsible for briefing and training them. The trainee registers their DE in IPD Online using their email address and membership or non-member number.
- DEs normally carry out a progress review every three months, assess progress in IPD Online against the attributes, and review and comment on CPD plans and records. They report back to the SCE regularly.
- DEs are particularly useful where there are many trainees, or where the trainee and SCE are not in the same location. The DE may not be the trainee's line manager.
- Formal assessment of the training and of the trainee against the attributes remains the SCE's responsibility, through the annual appraisals and the Training Review.
From ICE Training Scheme & Guidance, Institution of Civil Engineers.
Getting the best out of a trainee
ICE's own list is a good one, and unusually human for a procedural document. Create an environment of reflective learning and give feedback. Continuously challenge them to achieve more. Make sure their existing skills are used in a cost-effective way. Identify opportunities that are mutually beneficial. Make them feel secure in tackling demanding new roles. Provide support and encouragement.
To which the practical addition is: notice the attribute they are not going to get. Almost every trainee will accumulate technical evidence naturally and will not accumulate commercial evidence naturally. The SCE who spots that in year two and arranges a package budget is worth more to that trainee than any amount of quarterly review.
The conflict you are there to manage
ICE says explicitly that you must be able to manage conflicts between the employer's needs and the trainee's need to achieve the attributes. In practice that conflict is almost always the same one: the trainee is good at something, so they keep being given that something, and their development narrows.
Resolving it is uncomfortable, because it means asking a delivery manager to give up a productive person for a secondment or a different package. It is also the part of the role that only the SCE can do, and it is the reason ICE says SCEs are responsible to the profession first.
Staying capable
ICE asks SCEs to keep up to date with best practice and changes in the scheme, to be aware of changes to ICE's routes to membership and the Professional Review requirements, and to maintain their own CPD record — noting that your role involves making sure trainees fulfil the CPD requirements, so you should lead by example.
There are also some administrative facts worth knowing: if you leave your employer you are removed from their list of SCEs after six months, and IPD Online access goes with it. If you have had no trainees for three years or more you are advised to contact your Membership Recruitment Team before accepting new ones. If you move to a different Approved Employer who wants you as an SCE, a new SCE application is required.
SCE self-check
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Related pages and tools
- Training AgreementHow a Training Agreement works from registration to completion: responsibilities, reviews, appraisals and the Training Review.
- Training SchemeThe whole scheme in one place: the roles, the systems, the appeal routes and the definitions.
- EmployersWhat operating the ICE Training Scheme commits an organisation to, and what makes it work in practice.
- IPD OnlineThe two ICE systems behind the Training Scheme, who can see what in each, and how to use them without creating work later.
- MentorsHow to be useful to a candidate: what to look at, what to say, and where your role stops.