Engineers Ireland is committed to providing rewarding volunteer opportunities for our members, providing opportunities to learn and develop.  This section intends to act as a reference for volunteers and potential volunteers to give them an idea of what is expected in their role as a volunteer for Engineers Ireland.

Quite often volunteers are the public face of Engineers Ireland through their activities. For this reason we will also outline what is expected of a volunteer in terms of experience, conduct and commitment.

Volunteers are an essential part of many of the core activities of Engineers Ireland. Amongst the many ways in which volunteers are beneficial to the aims and activities of Engineers Ireland are to:

  • provide a human face to the profession of engineering
  • provide knowledge
  • have geographical spread of Engineering expertise
  • help raise awareness of the Engineering Profession

Volunteering can be of benefit in many ways to the volunteer and their organisation. This is an opportunity to:

  • Gain valuable CPD credits
  • Make a difference to your profession
  • Network with other engineers
  • Share your knowledge
  • Hone your presentation skills

Engineers Ireland recognizes an exceptional volunteer or volunteer group each year in recognition of their work for the organisation. The volunteer of the year or volunteer group must be members of Engineers Ireland. The award is presented at the Excellence Awards annually.

Which area of volunteering best suits your skills and experience?

There are a number of volunteering positions in Engineers Ireland, which have been briefly outlined below. For further information on any of the below roles, please contact the Volunteer Liasion.

Graduate volunteers

Gain CPD credits while improving your communication, negotiation and presentation skills. Engineers Ireland offers engineering students a dedicated career session in their final year of college Graduate engineers are invited to attend and present a short 15 minute presentation on the skills that engineering companies expect of their graduate engineers, and what students can expect when they begin working in industry.

STEPS Volunteers

Engineers Ireland runs a number of initiatives at primary and post-primary level through its STEPS programme. In particular if you are just starting out on your professional career, this volunteer opportunity affords you a chance to hone your presentation and communication skills, essential tools for any professional.

Interviewers and Assessors

Develop your knowledge of the professional standards for engineering and influence the award of the professional titles to suitable engineers, all while continuing your professional development.

This volunteer option not only affords you the option to have a direct influence on the admission of engineers to the professional titles of Chartered Engineer, Associate Engineer and Engineering Technician but it also gives you the chance to increase your knowledge of the profession by sharing with your peers.

Mentor

Learn to become a mentor and use your experience to truly assist another in your profession

This volunteer opportunity is invaluable to your peers.  Using your experience and friendly helpful approach can really give back to the profession by helping a peer examine their career in relation to the competences required for the professional titles of Chartered Engineer, Associate Engineer and Engineering Technician.

A mentor provides invaluable support to a member who is applying for the professional title of Chartered Engineer, Associate Engineer or Engineering Technician through the experiential learning route to title.

Regional Branches, Engineering Divisions and Societies

Volunteering to participate in a sector is an ideal way to gain the most from your membership, whether it’s because you want to know more engineers in your locality, you want to develop more knowledge in a specific discipline area or you enjoy learning from and sharing your expertise with peers with the same interests as you.  Please refer to the sectors handbook for full information.

A sector handbook is available to download from the Engineers Ireland website. The Sector Support Team, in particular the Customer Service Officer, deals directly with all of the sectors within Engineers Ireland.

CPD Expert

Are you an expert in an upcoming or cutting edge field of engineering?
Contact the CPD team to suggest how you can contribute to future seminiars or panel discussions

Code of Good Practice for Engineers Ireland Volunteers

 Quite often volunteers are the public face of Engineers Ireland through their activities. For this reason we will also outline what is expected of a volunteer in terms of experience, conduct and commitment.

We intend that this code of good practice should be of benefit to all involved in the volunteer programme. When applying to volunteer with Engineers Ireland, each volunteer will declare and confirm that they have read, understand and will implement the code of good practice.

Engineers Ireland is committed to providing safe and enjoyable volunteer opportunities and as such the following code is expected to be observed at all times for all roles.

  • Observe Engineers Ireland’s Code of Ethic sat all times, ensuring professional integrity is practised
  • Confidentiality must be respected
  • Substance abuse is not tolerated
  • All concerns should be reported to your ‘volunteer leader’- you will be assigned a volunteer leader when  you first volunteer

In addition to the above, those volunteering to participate with Engineers Ireland’s STEPS programme has additional criteria which are role specific including Engineers Ireland's Child protection pocily statement. This information is provided to all volunteers on registration as a volunteer with the STEPS programme.