Wednesday 30 November 2016

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Westmeath National Roads Office (Westmeath NRO) has achieved the Engineers Ireland Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Accredited Employer standard, in recognition of the organisation’s continuing professional development strategy. The Engineers Ireland CPD Accredited Employer Standard is a strategic framework which enables engineers and engineering employers to raise competency levels and deliver tangible business benefits by investing in engineers through continuing professional development. Westmeath NRO was established in 1998 as a specialist office by Westmeath County Council (WCC) in partnership with the NRA, which is now part of Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII), in order to deliver the national roads programme in the midlands. The office has been directly involved with advancing and coordinating the design and construction of improvements to the national roads network in the midlands. The main functions of the office relate to project management, road scheme planning and design, applicable statutory procedures and construction management. Dermot Byrne, president of Engineers Ireland congratulated Westmeath NRO on their achievement at the parchment presentation. “I wish to congratulate Westmeath NRO for their dedication to professional development and achieving CPD Accredited Employer status. Investment in professional development is essential for engineering organisations to gain a competitive edge and achieve results on a local and international level. It is clear that the senior management team in Westmeath NRO has a strong commitment to developing its people and will continue to benefit from the strategic approach facilitated by the CPD standard,” said Byrne. “As an organisation we realise the value of CPD and this accreditation is an endorsement of our commitment to CPD," said Michael Kelly, senior executive engineer, Westmeath NRO. "We understand that investment in people is required to drive innovation and improve processes and we are delighted to achieve the Engineers Ireland Accredited Employer standard. Implementing the programme has created a greater focus on L&D for our engineers and also the alignment of our L&D initiatives with the needs of our organisation.  We look forward to developing our knowledge sharing, mentoring, skills and competency initiatives further,” he added.