Phase 3 · Complete your IPD

Individually managed IPD

Managing your own training with a personal mentor: the records, the meetings, and the forms at the end.

Who this is for:Candidates at any stage ·Mentors

You are responsible for managing your own training, with the assistance of a personal mentor — and for keeping the records that show progress towards each Core Objective.

What this route requires

Institution of Structural Engineers

You are responsible for managing your own training, with the assistance of a personal mentor.
You must keep records of your training and experience to indicate your progress towards each Core Objective. The Institution has IPD quarterly report forms and progress summary records for this purpose.
You may also benefit from a personal development diary, updated weekly, covering all activities relating to IPD — it makes completing your quarterly reports easier.
It is important to have regular meetings with your personal mentor to review your progress against the Core Objectives and agree your action plan.
You should maintain your own CPD record, and keep a professional development action plan of your training objectives for subsequent periods.
Once you have satisfied the requirements, complete the Institution's IPD final report forms, signed by your personal mentor, and send them with your completed application.
This route also requires you to submit your quarterly report forms, progress summary records and portfolio directly to your reviewers when requested.

Supporting documents outside the page count: Quarterly reports, progress summary, signed training recordsSent directly to your reviewers, not to the Institution, and they do not count towards the 300 pages.

From IPD Guidance — Chartered Member, Institution of Structural Engineers.

The weekly diary is the part that actually works

The guidance offers it as optional — "you may also benefit" — but of everything on this page it is the single habit that makes the rest easy.

A quarterly report written from a weekly diary takes an hour and contains real detail: the option you rejected, the number that surprised you, the conversation that changed the design. A quarterly report written from memory three months later takes just as long and contains a summary of what the projects were.

Four years on, when you are writing ten final report forms and assembling a 300-page portfolio, the difference between those two records is the difference between a straightforward job and an archaeology exercise.

What to write in it

Not what the project did. What you did, and what you decided.

The Core Objectives are set at Knowledge, Experience or Ability, and reviewers read the words you chose. A diary entry that says "attended design team meeting" evidences nothing. One that says "argued for moving the core to the north end because the transfer at level 2 was driving the frame depth; sized both options first; the architect accepted it" evidences concept design, communication, and analysis in three lines.

Fictional example

The same fortnight, recorded two ways

Fictional example — a graduate engineer, second year

Weaker

Worked on the Northgate project. Carried out design of steelwork to the mezzanine and attended site. Assisted with the foundation design.

Stronger

Northgate mezzanine. Sized the secondary beams by hand first (UB 305×165 governed by deflection, not strength — L/360 gave 18 mm against 24 mm available) then checked against the model, which came out 6% lower because it was picking up composite action I had not assumed. Decided to keep the hand-sized member because the deck was not designed as composite. Went to site for the first pour and found the holding-down bolts 15 mm out on two bases; agreed the oversized plate washer detail with the contractor rather than moving the bolts.

Why — The second version took four minutes to write and evidences analysis and sizing, materials, construction and communication. The first evidences that the candidate was employed. In three years' time only one of them can be turned into a final report form.

Running this route well

I have a personal mentor, and we meet on a regular agreed rhythm.
I keep a development diary, updated weekly rather than before each report.
My entries say what I decided, not what the project delivered.
I complete IPD quarterly report forms and a progress summary record.
My mentor and I review progress against the Core Objectives, not just the projects.
We agree an action plan, with the objectives I am weakest in named.
I maintain my own CPD record and a professional development action plan.
I know my final report forms need my mentor's signature.
I know quarterly reports and progress summaries go to my reviewers, not to the Institution.

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