Professional Progression

Professional Progression Programme

Graduate TransitionProgramme Overview

The second strand of the Future Professionals Programme is aimed at engineers with between three and six years experience who are committed to deepening their abilities as a professional.

The Professional Progression Programme is a unique delivery partnership that works hand-in-hand with an organisation, its people managers and its graduates to accelerate the development of graduates with some experience and practice into professional engineers.

Participants will undergo a transformation in terms of their ability to make a significant contribution to their workplace as respected professionals who will shape future society.

Programme Content & Schedule

Year 1

    • Programme induction
    • Guidelines for Learning Contract & Mentoring
  • 1. Project Management
    • The complete 4-day programme in conjunction with Centre for Project Management, University of Limerick
  • 2. Statistical Analysis
  • 3. Leadership & Management Skills
  • 4. Negotiation & Influencing Skills
  • 5. Lean Principles for Professional Engineers
  • 6. Sustainability for Professional Engineers

Year 2:

  • 7. Contracts, Claims & Dispute Resolution
  • 8. Communicating Complex Ideas
  • 9. Finance for Professional Engineers
  • 10. Risk Management & Control
  • 11. Advanced Knowledge Management skills
  • 12. Preparing to become a Chartered Engineer

 

Aims and Objectives

The programme is designed to meet the needs of Irish industry and businesses for engineers who have expanded their knowledge, skills and proficiency as a professional.

The specific learning objectives are to provide graduates with:

  • A broad-based, up-to-date understanding of the wider capabilities required of a professional engineer
  • The theoretical and analytical skills and abilities required to anticipate and manage the engineering requirements of their organisation, including project management, statistical analysis and risk management
  • An appreciation of the nature and importance of the financial aspects of engineering, including contracts, claims and dispute resolution.
  • The skills and tools to analyse problems and to use leadership, negotiation and advanced knowledge management skills to make decisions
  • A grounded awareness of contemporary developments in Lean Principles and Sustainability in an increasingly global environment
  • An understanding of the competences which lead to the title of Chartered Engineer

Programme Structure

This programme is based on a partnership approach between Engineers Ireland, the participant and the participant’s employer.  Participants must fulfill a Learning Contract which ensures they apply what they learn in a manner which benefits their place of work.  Participants must complete and report on a work-based project.

Award-winning e-learning modules support the programme. Employers appoint a mentor to guide candidates through the process and ‘Model Training Guides’ from Engineers Ireland set useful curricula for engineers of all disciplines and their mentors.

A CPD log means progress can be monitored and measured. Those who complete the programme and have suitable qualifications and experience can use their CPD log in applying to become a Chartered Engineer, the legal title used by professional engineers demonstrating a high level of professional expertise

Guest Lectures: 

A special series of guest lectures will challenge participants and deliver insights on topics including Philosophy, Economics, Law & Engineering, Organisational Behaviour, Visual Arts and Intercultural Competencies.

 

Project Management Professional (PMP)

All participants complete 35 hours of formal Project Management education, a prerequisite to sit the Project Management Professional Certificate exam to achieve Project Management Professional (PMP) status.

Tutor Details

Name Specialist Areas Year 1 Module
Aidan Harney Education & Professional Development Induction Day (Participants & Mentors)
Declan Cunningham Project Management Project Management Module 1
Declan Cunningham Project Management Project Management Module 2
Albert Plant SPC, Design of Experiments, Response Surface Methodology, FMEA, Problem Solving and Statistical Sampling Statistical Analysis
John McGowan Strategic Business Management Leadership & Management Skills
Phil Kildea Business Policy, Business Mentor and Coaching Negotiation & Influencing Skills
Eddie O’Neill Lean Manufacturing, Six Sigma and Strategy Development Lean Principles for Professional Engineers
John Harrington Strategic Sustainable Development Sustainability for Professional Engineers
Aidan Harney

Induction Day (Participants & Mentors): Aidan Harney, BA MBS, Chartered FCIPD, CPD Director, Engineers Ireland

Aidan Harney is Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Director at Engineers Ireland. Aidan holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree from the University of Ulster, Coleraine, and a Business Studies Masters in Human Resource Strategies from Dublin City University Executive Business School. He has returned to DCU to guest lecture on his research topic: mentoring.

Aidan’s current role focuses on overall CPD policy and strategy for Engineers Ireland, involving as stakeholders our members, employers, Government, third level institutions, training providers and other representative bodies.

Declan Cunningham

Project Management

Declan Cunningham is one of Ireland’s top tutors on the subject of Project Management for engineers. He brings more than 25 years national and international experience as a senior-level Project Manager. He completed a Masters in Project Management in the University of Limerick and now develops and delivers numerous project management training projects with the Centre for Project Management in UL. 

Albert Plant

Statistical Analysis

Albert Plant is a Chartered Engineer and a Fellow of Engineers Ireland (FIEI). He is a leading consultant and trainer, with a Masters degree from Trinity College, Dublin, and a B.Sc. degree majoring in statistics and mathematics. He heads up a consultancy and training practice based in Ireland. His experience spans consultancy and training in statistical applications in Ireland, the UK and the USA.  He undertakes statistical analysis on a consultancy basis for several multi-national organisations.   Albert has developed and presented training courses on SPC, Design of Experiments, Response Surface Methodology, FMEA, Reliability Engineering, Problem Solving, Statistical Sampling, and other quality topics, in addition to this training course on Statistical Analysis.

John McGowan

Leadership and Management Skills

John McGowan is a Chartered Engineer and a Fellow of Engineers Ireland (FIEI) and also Past President of Engineers Ireland.  He received his BE in Civil Engineering from NUI, Galway in 1970 and his Masters degree in Structural Engineering from Trinity College Dublin in 1974.  He was appointed MD of McNamara Construction in 2006. 

Prior to this he was Vice President, Technology & Manufacturing Group, and Director, Corporate Services for Intel Corporation worldwide where he was jointly responsible for facilities management, utility supply, manufacturing support, safety, security, real estate and construction services for all Intel operations across the globe, administering an annual expense budget of $2 billion, and an annual capital spend of $1 billion.

Prior to joining Intel, John was a director of Jacobs International, with his final project for that firm being the design and construction of Intel’s Fab 10 facility in Leixlip, Co Kildare. John is a member of the Institute of Directors.  The Association of Consulting Engineers of Ireland honoured him with the Engineer of the Year Award in 2000.  He was awarded the NUIG 2003 NTL Award for Engineering, IT and Mathematics.

Phil Kildea

Negotiation and Influencing Skills

Phil Kildea is a trainer, business mentor and executive coach with 20 years’ training experience. He works with clients from a broad range of industries in the Private and Public sectors. He has several qualifications including a Masters of Business Administration, Bachelor of Business Studies (1st Class Hons),  a Graduateship in Marketing from MII, a National Diploma in Personnel Management, Graduate Diploma in Executive Coaching, and Certificates in Training and Continuing Education. Phil is a certified NLP practitioner (Neuro Linguistic Programming)   and also lectures part time in Business Policy for the Institute of Public Administration (IPA).

Eddie O’Neill

Lean Principles

Eddie O’Neill previously held a Senior Business Process Improvement (Lean Sigma) Consultancy role within Dell Computer Corporation, were he championed strategy development and deployment across EMEA Sales & Marketing organisation. He has extensive experience in people management.  He is a recognised team leader and motivator with strong communication and inter-personal skills.  Eddie is an expert in Lean Manufacturing and Six Sigma to Green Belt and is a qualified trainer.

John Harrington

Sustainability for Professionals

John Harrington is the Director of RealEyes Sustainability Ltd. He is part of a global network of sustainability experts and business leaders through his affiliation with The Natural Step International.   John introduced the framework for strategic sustainable development into Ireland in 2007 and set up RealEyes to help organisations use it and other strategic tools to improve and align what they were already doing on sustainability.  Recent RealEyes clients include Dublin City Council, RPA, Cybercom and the Green Awards.  John has a BSc from Trinity College and a DBS from the Michael Smurfit Graduate School of Business.

Outcomes and Award

To complete the programme, a final progress reports is requested from participants and their mentors. Those who complete the programme will be awarded with a Certificate of Completion of the Engineers Ireland Professional Progression Programme.

The programme is recognised for CPD in accordance with Engineers Ireland CPD guidelines.