In this guide
Use this material to examine your own work. Confirm current requirements, forms and dates with ICE before applying.
Career Appraisal allows engineers who already have experience across the attributes to complete IPD through a written submission. It provides an alternative to completing a structured training scheme.
The four sub-pages
The Career Appraisal is substantial enough to be treated as its own process rather than as a single step, so it is set out across four further pages:
- Eligibility: who it suits, who cannot use it, and what has to be true before you start.
- The report: how the Career Appraisal report differs from a Professional Review report, and it does differ.
- Assembling the documents: the submission format, and the limits that get applications returned.
- Outcomes: the four possible results and what each means.
Finding a mentor
ICE encourages you to have a mentor for Career Appraisal. It is optional, but a mentor can verify the report and must sign its cover page if you have one.
Choose a senior engineer able to commit to guiding you. Ideally, they are an ICE Member at your intended grade or above, understand the procedures and competence standards, and know your work.
ICE advises that, where possible, your Career Appraisal mentor should also act as lead sponsor for Professional Review. Finding someone who can support both stages early helps avoid sponsor-related delays.
How long the whole thing takes
- Before you start
Educational base confirmed, and a mentor found
Both take longer than expected, and both can stop the application.
- Two to six months
Mapping evidence and writing the report
Up to 5,000 words, or 3,000 for a progressive top-up, plus appendices, a two-page CV and three years of CPD records.
- Monthly deadlines
Submission
Career Appraisals are assessed once a month. The deadlines are on ICE's key dates page.
- After assessment
One of four outcomes
Proceed; resubmit with more information; attend a verification meeting; or the assessment cannot be completed.
- Then
Apply for the Professional Review
Your result letter is submitted with that application as evidence of IPD completion.
Questions to ask yourself
- Am I eligible to use this route at all?
You cannot apply while on a Training Agreement or registered for mentor-supported training, and there are several situations where ICE points you elsewhere.
- Do I have three years of CPD records?
A personal development record covering at least the last three years is required, at around 30 hours a year. If you have kept nothing, that is the constraint on your timing.
- Who will be my mentor, and could they be my lead sponsor afterwards?
ICE suggests they should be, if possible. Finding one person who can do both removes the most common delay in the whole process.
Official sources
Selected publisher pages were rechecked in September 2026. Other source records were last checked in July 2026. Open the latest official document before relying on a requirement.