Membership Opportunities in the Construction Industry
There are many memberships that you can obtain within the construction industry. These are with reputable organisations that aim to increase construction professionals skills. They also aim to improve the standards of the construction industry. Furthermore, many of the organisations require individuals to undertake consistent learning to ensure that their members maintain those high standards.
Due to the standard that members work at, it allows them to become highly desirable for employment at construction companies. Additionally, many individuals who have obtained membership have advanced their career development.
The College of Contract Management offers many different coaching services which offer guidance throughout the process of gaining membership.
This article will discuss the various memberships that you could get, what they offer you and the benefits of them. You will then be able to use this article as a guide to choosing the right membership for you.
The Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB)
The Chartered Institute of Building offers a variety of different memberships. Student, Chartered Member and Chartered Fellow. They not only offer it for individuals, but also for companies. This means that businesses can gain Chartered recognition.
The student membership is for those studying full time with an aim to become Chartered once they have finished their studies.
The Chartered Member is someone who gets to have MCIOB by their name. Additionally, the individual will be known as a Chartered Builder or a Chartered Construction Manager.
There are many routes to becoming a Chartered official, which will be explained more in depth below.
How Do You Become Chartered?
There are a few different accepted routes to become Chartered.
The first route is: A minimum of Level 6 qualification, such as a bachelor’s, NVQ, master’s degree or post-grad in a construction related area and 3 years relevant experience. The College of Contract Management offers an NVQ Level 6 in Construction Site Management. This would be ideal to satisfy the qualification requirements for MCIOB alongside experience.
For those who do not have the relevant qualifications, the CIOB recognise the CMP as a alternative way to gain membership. This is the Chartered Membership program that the College of Contract Management offers. Once individuals have completed the CMP, they will have to complete the Professional Review. We also offer a coaching service to best assist them through this process.
The CMP is offered for those with some experience already (5 years). You will learn Construction Technology, Management, Contracts and Commercial Management, and Health Safety and the Environment.
The final stage for any applicant for MCIOB is the professional review. This assesses individuals level of competence in a few different areas. The PR coaching can help you achieve this by reviewing your first draft application and informing you of ways you can add to your report. The PR coaching can also guide you through the process and give you the confidence to pass the professional review stage.
How About Becoming a Chartered Fellow?
To obtain Fellow membership, individuals need to have extensive experience, usually at least 5 years leading an organisation. They must also make efforts to contribute to the wider society. There is a fairly long process to become a fellow, you can find more information here.
The Benefits of CIOB Membership
There are many benefits of membership, aside from having MCIOB by your name. Individuals get access to events, resources and the CIOB library. Additionally, the recognition from the membership is by far the most beneficial part of it, and the reason most people will seek to obtain it.
Individuals also have access to numerous networking events and opportunities which can allow them to meet lots of other professionals in the construction industry. Moreover, they consistently take CPD courses to maintain their membership which in turn allows them to update their skills.
You can find out more about the various benefits on our blog post ‘Benefits of CIOB Membership‘.
The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS)
The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) promotes high standards in land, real estate, construction and infrastructure. They also have a few different types of membership.
AssocRICS
Associate (AssocRICS) is the first step to becoming part of RICS. Individuals must complete the associate qualification as well as 1 year of experience and a degree or 2 years experience and a higher, advanced or foundation qualification.
Individuals will choose which sector of surveying to specialise in. There are 13 different ones, including: building surveying, real estate, project management, valuation and many more.
Chartered
The next stage that many people decide to obtain is the Chartered membership (MRICS). The College of Contract Management offers an APC coaching service which will help individuals to complete their Assessment of Professional Competence. The APC ensures that individuals meet the required standards in the industry. For those who wish to progress straight to the Chartered membership, they need 5 years of experience and a bachelor’s degree or equivalent entry requirements.
Student
Moreover, RICS has a student membership. This is RICS Student, and is ideal for those who are progressing their career into surveying, but have not yet completed their qualifications.
Benefits of RICS Membership
Not only does gaining RICS qualifications increase your knowledge and understanding within the industry, it can also increase your salary as you will become more reputable as a surveying professional. It also allows you to become a part of a network of professionals that can all help to develop each other.
Many RICS members state that being a part of them has helped their clients trust them more. Other members state that they like to be a part of RICS because they can help make a change with key issues such as sustainability. RICS does a lot when it comes to progressing the future of surveying as well as upholding professional standards in the industry and their qualifications.
Association of Planning Engineers (APE)
The Association of Planning Engineers is a non-profit organisation which helps to develop individuals professional skills in the industry of planning engineering. They both provide accredited courses as well as memberships. The main goal of APE is to increase the standards of professionals who are planning engineers.
They offer a few different types of membership. There is Student, Associate (ACPENG), Professional (MCPENG), and Fellow (FCPENG).
Student
When individuals are on a degree program in a relevant area, they will be able to join APE as a student free of charge until they complete their studies and apply to become an Associate of APE.
Associate Membership
This is the first stage of membership with APE. In order to become an associate you need a degree and 3 years of relevant experience. Individuals are able to have ACPENG postnominals and have access to CPD courses.
If applicants do not have a degree, they may be eligible for Associate if they have a recognised course from a recognised course provider. Currently these are Forensic Schedule Analysis courses which are taught by the College of Contract Management.
There is also the professional review candidate route, this is for those who do not have the necessary experience or the necessary qualifications to become an associate member.
Professional Membership
The full membership is known as Professional. These individuals get to have MCPENG postnominals. To progress to Professional, individuals must be Associate first and then complete the Assessment of Competence. This includes a CV, a detailed report of competence and some plans for future CPD hours.
The College of Contract Management has a coaching course for those who wish to become MCPENG. This will help applicants learn what is expected of them for the Assessment of Competence.
Fellow Membership
Becoming a fellow is the highest membership with APE. In order to gain this, individuals need to be a senior manager or director in a company for 2 or more years. They also need to have worked as a counsellor or a mentor for young professionals.
This membership is rather different as you can actually be a part of APE, helping to develop their policies and review processes.
Planning Specialism
APE membership can allow you to be a certified planning professional in a variety of different specialisms.
These are:
- Professional Planner
- Cost Planner
- Strategic and Contingency Planner
- Expert Witness
- Forensic Schedule Analysis
- Forensic Planner
Benefits of APE Membership
APE is the only professional body specifically for Planning Engineers. This means that showing professionalism with the membership can help individuals to become more employable, and increase the standards of work. In addition, learning these new skills can help individuals bring more to their team with new techniques as well as continual learning with CPD courses.
CICES
The Chartered Institution of Civil Engineering Surveyors is a organisation sought to improve the skills of those who are civil engineers in the construction industry.
There are many different membership grades including student and affiliate. The student is similar to what we have discussed in this article so far, but the affiliate is for those who have an interest in this area of construction. It is intended to be a stepping stone to progressing to a qualification grade of membership. There is then associate, graduate, technical, member and fellow.
Associate
The associate member is normally someone who is undertaking an apprenticeship and once they have completed it, they can progress to other memberships.
Graduate
This membership is for those who have completed a CICES accredited degree course. They are awarded the post nominals of GCInstCES.
Technical
These individuals have completed the competences for the technical membership. They have TCInstCES post nominals.
Member
Qualified Civil Engineering Surveyor with MCInstCES post nominals. There is an extensive process to this membership with many competencies to pass, interviews and the relevant qualifications. You can find more about this on their website.
Conclusion
Your decision of which membership to obtain comes down to a few considerations. Firstly, what area of construction do you currently work in or are interested in working in? Secondly, what are you hoping to get from membership?
Each of these organisations are for the construction industry, but the professions vary. CIOB is for builders, construction managers and more. RICS is for those in the broad area of surveying. On the other hand, APE is specifically for planning engineering.
When considering what you would like from a membership, it would be ideal to look at their individual construction industry values. For example, APE focuses on advancing the skills and accrediting professionals in Planning Engineering. RICS focuses on improving sustainability in the construction industry as well as upholding professional standards. As for the CIOB, they have a corporate plan to outline what they want to work on to progress the construction industry. Currently this is things like improving the quality of life for creators of the built environment, improving values and the professional standards. The CIOB also does a lot of work on the ethics in construction.
Aside from the organisations’ core values, you may want to consider what other benefits being a member can give you. For example, you may want to be a part of the networking or access to numerous learning resources.
At the College of Contract Management we are committed to helping you achieve these memberships and that is why we have a variety of coaching courses for you in all of these memberships.
If you want to know more about these, please contact us.