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Professional qualification: Embedding sustainable practice and climate literacy within standards and assessment requirements
Professional qualification: Embedding sustainable practice and climate literacy within professional standards and assessment requirements
Members who are seeking professional qualification will need to clearly understand the key requirements of them in relation to the level of professional status they are seeking; in particular, how sustainable practice and climate literacy fits within these professional registers. Where changes are being proposed, applicants will need to know how any changes will affect them applying, how they might be assessed, and when changes might happen.
It is essential that applicants can freely access clear guidance around sustainable practice and climate literacy, to enable them to prepare and present themselves for professional review, demonstrating how they meet the criteria set by which their competence will be assessed. This guidance and assessment will also need to reflect the opportunities they will have in their working lives, be contextualised to their role, with clarity on the expected level of competence they need to be working at and demonstrating routinely.
Many professional institutions have already made sustainable practice part of the range of standards they set and assess professional competence against, with guidance routinely offered to prospective candidates. Also, institutions have increased the level of training for their reviewers to ensure a thorough assessment of professional competence.
In combination with the codes of conduct, the professional review process is well positioned for sustainable practice and the ongoing need for CPD to maintain competence. However, terminology relating to climate literacy is less abundant in professional standards and review practices, and it is here that improvements could be made for built environment professionals.
Case Study: Institution of Structural Engineers (IStructE): Embedding sustainable practice and climate literacy within professional registration standards and the professional review processes
Over recent years, the Institution of Structural Engineers (IStructE) identified the need to make changes to the professional review processes in place in response to a variety of factors, including:
Activity 4: Embedding sustainable practice and climate literacy within the professional standards and qualification process
Activity 4: Embedding sustainable practice and climate literacy within the professional standards and qualification process
Learning Points
Making successful contact with potential applicants requires meticulous planning and will probably take more time than you think! You will see from the actions devised through activity 4, that a plan that a 12-month timescale may only just be possible – with two years being probably more realistic.
To achieve a short timescale any internal responses such as board and committee engagement, preparation and publication of standards and guidance, along with the upskilling of professional assessors will have to occur without delay.
In order to make the best use of resources, it is essential that your institution aims to define its aspirations and assess how realistic they are. This can avoid expensive attempts to achieve aspirations that are essentially a step too far from the current position.
Offering a dedicated Professional Register to recognise Environmental Professionals
A number of built environment professional institutions are now offering members access to the professional registers operated by the Society for the Environment, an umbrella organisation that licenses other professional bodies from almost every sector for environmental competence.
Here, members have the option to apply to, and be assessed against, one of the three dedicated professional standards for environmental competence:
- Registered Environmental Technician (REnvTech)
- Registered Environmental Practitioner (REnvP)
- Chartered Environmentalist (CEnv)
Working in partnership with professional institutions, licensed by the Society for the Environment, some 10,000 environmental professionals have been registered since 2004 (across a very broad and wide range of industries). Some profiles of professional registrants are available online complete with a range of resources open to members and registrants alike.
With professional institutions open to regulation by the Society of the Environment, promoting an access to dual professionalism can be a welcome reality for many members and professionally qualified built environmental professionals within a single professional home.
Case Study: The Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB): Offering wider professional registration options to built environment professionals
CIOB identified the need and increasing demand from the construction industry to recognise sustainability expertise, and in response saw one way to demonstrate competency being for members to consider gaining chartered environmentalist status, CEnv, from the Society for the Environment (SocEnv).