Professional Review (PR) route to MCIOB by Andrew Tinsdeall MBA MCIOB

I am the Internal Quality Assurance (IQA) supervisor at the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) National Construction College, managing a team of assessors delivering Construction Supervisory and Management qualifications from level 3 to level 7.

I took over this role in 2009 when the responsibility for delivery of this suite of qualifications was assumed into the Assessment & Verification department at the college where I was currently assessing and quality assuring plant maintenance qualifications.

The team I inherited consisted of some very experienced industry professionals and qualified assessors who were either FCIOB or MCIOB and as such I considered myself to be in exalted company. It was due to this that I considered it essential that I further develop myself in order to gain Chartered Manager status.

Having a Higher National Certificate (HNC) in Engineering and a Level 6 National Vocational Qualification (NVQ) in Management, gained from my previous Army career – whilst accepted by the External Verifiers at both Edexcel and CSkills Awards Awarding Organisations to IQA these qualifications – I felt that I needed to develop myself further in order to achieve my goal of MCIOB. I thus embarked on undertaking a part time Master of Business Administration (MBA) course at the University of Huddersfield – kindly sponsored by the CITB, which I completed in 2015.

Once suitably qualified, I applied to undertake to Professional Review. I initially found the process using the writeable pdf constraining as the boxes didn’t allow for the extensive in-depth answers that I believed were warranted to fulfill the criteria. I noted the free PR sessions put on by the institute and booked onto one. It was good to meet with some of the staff and local members who kindly gave up their time to offer advice which was useful in gauging the depth of content required for the application. Once completed, I offered my application to members of my team for peer review, noted their feedback, and then submitted my application.

I was delighted to receive notification that my application had been accepted and was proud to finally achieve my goal when my certificate of membership arrived.

My ambition to gain a chartership was not merely driven by personal vanity but to enhance the credibility of both myself and my team to the industry. It also became a formal requirement for assessors to hold chartered membership (or equivalent qualification) to be able to deliver level 6 and 7 vocational assessment and by extension, I personally believe the IQA should also hold chartered status. Having a team of chartered managers delivering these qualifications is a Unique Selling Point and I believe; is the reason we attract high quality candidates wishing to embark on undertaking them.

I was aware from my initial interactions with the CIOB that the institute was very much academically focussed and initially not a natural home for managers and senior managers who had developed their career through experiential learning. The foundations of the construction industry are built on technical knowledge and practical application. I believe passionately that the industry has a wealth of talent that can be recognised through the attainment of vocational qualifications and have a valid role to play within the CIOB and across the wider industry. For experienced managers and senior managers who do not hold appropriate academic degrees, vocational qualifications provide recognition of your skills benchmarked against national standards. Since becoming a member, I have successfully applied to join the Education, Qualifications, Standards and Practice Board where I aim to be a representative voice in support of vocational education, assessment, and achievement going forward.

For those considering gaining chartership via the PR route – having successfully achieved a suitable qualifying qualification – I would advise you to expose yourself to as many leadership and managerial experiences as possible to ensure you have the experience to draw upon to complete the application successfully. I would also advise that you identify a mentor and use your peers to give constructive feedback before submission. Good luck.