In this guide
Use this guidance to plan your learning. ICE and IStructE set and assess the requirements for their own routes.
Choose examples deliberately
Choose examples where you can explain your responsibility and the reasoning behind a decision. The scale of the project alone tells a reviewer little about your contribution.
Be precise about your role
Distinguish what you observed, calculated, checked, recommended, led and approved. State the limits of your authority and who reviewed the outcome.
Show the thinking
Record the constraints, assumptions, rejected options and checks. If the outcome was imperfect, explain what you learned and what you would change.
Protect the project and your credibility
Remove confidential material or seek permission to use it. Never invent responsibility, use another person’s account as your own or let AI produce a claim you cannot defend.
Build an account of your contribution.
Use nine prompts: issue, role, responsibility, options, decision, checks, communication, outcome and reflection. State what you did yourself, where another engineer reviewed the work and which records support the account.
“Attended design coordination meetings.”
The entry records attendance. It leaves your contribution and the outcome unclear.
“Reviewed an interface issue, identified missing design information, compared the available options and recommended a solution based on programme, safety and technical constraints.”
This fictional example shows the detail an account can include. Write your own record from work you did and can explain.
Questions to test your example.
- What was uncertain, and which assumptions did you check?
- Which option did you reject, and why?
- What was your level of authority? Who checked or approved the decision?
- What changed in the project, and how do you know?
- What would you approach differently next time?