The new outcomes
based registration system for Engineers is now underway albeit that ECSA has
not yet developed the online system for the capture of the submission data. The
release of the systems for Technologists, Technicians and Certificated
Engineers is in progress.
SAIMechE, under its
Professional Development Programme (PDP), has finalised the development of the
training curriculum for each of the eleven outcomes, the submission capture
formats and the introduction to the complete programme and the training
programme for Mentors who play a necessary, regular and specified role in the
process. The PDP has been developed using the exact outcome and assessment
criteria for registration as those formulated by ECSA under the R02 model.
SAIMechE will facilitate the Candidate's training programme by the provision of
the documentation that guides the Candidate on the requirements for each
outcome and the coordination of the activities via a monthly Mentor facilitated workshop per Candidate
cell.
We call this the
regular procedure that is intended to be applied to facilitate the training
programme for professional development for members of SAIMechE. This process
will result in the issue of an SAIMechE Certificate of Competence that will
enable any holder thereof to use the same content to apply for ECSA
registration.
A necessary condition for the process to work is the structured involvement of
the Mentor, and it is here that, for the PDP to
have its intended industry wide effect, the role of the "independent"
Mentor is
required. Currently, and under the legacy training system, the employer
provides Mentors from its own employ that provide the service to its own
employed Candidate Engineers. This generally limits the availability of
mentoring in the case of smaller businesses that may not have the capacity to
employ persons who can act as Mentors. The role of the Mentor in the legacy system is generally much
less involved than that required for the new system. Thus the PDP is, in
conjunction with the other VAs, ECSA and the "scarce skills" forums,
striving to obtain formal and substantial funding for free-lance Mentors to
undertake the mentoring role as a revenue earning activity.
Accordingly, SAIMechE is inviting
its members to consider applying for the role of Mentor for
the PDP. The role will be defined in the Mentor training programme. This includes the
review of all the PDP curriculum material, the workshop process, guidelines on
the forming of candidate cells for ease of access and meetings, referee roles,
sign-off documentation, remuneration and administration functions. The referee
or sign-off process must finally be done by a Mentor who is a Pr Eng.
Ideally the business model would encourage a Mentor to seek and oversee up to six
candidates in a cell who would all attend a one day workshop per month. Each
workshop addresses one of the eleven outcomes in turn, thus making eleven
workshops per annum per cell. Depending on the number of candidates available
to an area, a Mentor
could select to practice mentoring full time for as many days of the week he or
she chooses. Thus the income potential is attractive.
This is a bold move forward to stimulate the level of professionalism in
the industry and to utilise the valuable experience of the Mentor. The question remains, can we find sufficient
Mentors?
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