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Schemes for Professional Engineers
Engineering Professional Development Awards
The most important resource
that any innovative and growing enterprise has is
the knowledge and skills possessed by its employees.
For any enterprise to compete successfully and grow
in the challenging business environment and global
marketplace of the 21st century, it must strive to
become a world-class performer. One way of creating
the necessary competitive advantage is to ensure
that the knowledge and skills flowing into it from
its employees reflect the very latest cutting-edge
technology and business practice.
This scheme assists
enterprises with this task by awarding funds to
support training programmes which focus on the
development of their engineering staff.
Nature of the scheme
The overall objective is to
encourage and financially support enterprises with
the cost of strategically aware, quality guided
employee centred training programmes in support of
their growth and on-going success.
There are two
tiers of award: £10,000 and £5,000 and prospective
applicants should indicate for which level of award
they are applying.
The award is not intended to be a
reimbursement of the total training costs, as the
Academy is keen to see these awards stimulating an
investment in training from the respective
enterprises.
Nature of a Training
Programme
Any training activity will be
given due consideration. Advice on the suitability
of activities is available from the Academy.
Training activities may be given by external
providers or be generated and delivered in-house.
Examples of such activities include:
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Work-based learning over the internet and e-courses.
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In-house seminars, short and bespoke courses.
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Training required by the implementation of new legislation or standards.
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Attendance at conferences, seminars and trade fairs.
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Short-term secondments to subsidiaries or to other organisations in the UK for defined purposes.
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Part-time and distance learning courses and packages.
Companies are encouraged to
think laterally in composing their training
programmes in order to stimulate and focus the
creativity, capability and business orientation of
their engineers in effective and exciting ways.
As guidance proposed programmes should:
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Be shown to
relate in a clear way to the business plan or
current strategic objectives of the enterprise
concerned.
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Benefit participants as individual
education or training to advance their individual
careers, or should benefit the enterprise where
there is a need to upskill or retrain employees.
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Include formal assessment of individual participants
following the various training activities.
The
Academy is also keen to receive applications from
enterprises working towards product quality
standards and marks of good employer practice such
as Investors in People.
Which companies are eligible to apply?
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All UK enterprises
operating in the engineering, manufacturing, ICT
or construction and building services sectors.
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Any size of enterprise is able to participate.
Applications from SMEs, small business units of
large companies and new business start-ups are
particularly encouraged.
What are the eligibility criteria for
Programme Participants?
Employees or programme participants as they are called in this scheme should,
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be qualified ideally with a
recognised engineering qualification such as a
degree, Higher or National Diploma/Certificate or NVQ Level III;
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have at least two years of
industrial or commercial experience.
How to apply
The application, consisting of
the training programme, company form and a
participant form for each employee involved must be
submitted in electronic form before 24 October 2013.
Applicants will be notified as to the outcome of the
selection process by early January 2014.
Training Programme Content
Each programme should include
details about the training activities to be
undertaken with justification and post-training
objectives for each participant. Where the programme
involves a course, the provider must be identified
and the start date and duration made clear. Brief
details on the course content should also be
appended.
If a secondment is to be
undertaken, the work programme should be outlined
and supported by a letter from a contact at the host
organisation, who should preferably be the project
supervisor.
Each training programme must
include a breakdown of the total costs involved. A
figure for the amount the enterprise will be
committing to the programme must be indicated in the
breakdown. This may include contributions towards
fees, books, stationery and IT equipment, travelling
expenses and salaries paid during any of the
activities.
Follow-up and reporting
The only subsequent contacts
with the Academy are for the enterprises and
programme participants to show eventual attainment
in the form of certificates and diplomas achieved,
and to give agreement for the winning schemes to be
written up as case studies with the aim of
publicising effective practice.
For further
information and application packs, please contact
Anne Mahabal at the Academy's address.
[E-mail Anne Mahabal]
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