Graduate development grant

The ECITB’s Graduate development grant supports the development of engineering graduates in the areas of sustainability, project capability, leadership, commercial awareness, diversity & inclusion and interpersonal skills – key areas within the UK-SPEC (C, D and E), the Engineering Council’s standard for professional engineering competencies.

This scheme is currently in its third year and the ECITB is pleased to announce that the scheme now includes training interventions covering environmental sustainability and diversity and inclusion as standard.

In-scope employers can submit their graduate training schemes for approval from 3rd July until 31st August 2023. Decisions in principle will be awarded in September.

This grant supports employers training graduates towards the outcomes expressed in these UK-SPEC competencies (C, D, E3&5). In implementing this grant, the ECITB are assuring consistency of development and providing all employers with the opportunity to develop their new engineering graduates in areas which should lead to improved project delivery – specifically:

  • project capability
  • contributing towards the net zero economy
  • leadership
  • commercial awareness
  • interpersonal skills
  • diversity and inclusion
  • ethical awareness
  • communication and stakeholder management
  • risk management
  • negotiation skills
  • digital leadership

Developing graduates in these areas should increase their ability to bring value within the company and, in particular, the creation of a welcoming, forward thinking and innovative working environment alongside the effective delivery of projects.

Funding details

The funding value for this grant will be up to £4,000 across a three year period and will be paid against the following milestones:

  1. Company training plan approved and graduates’ eligibility approved by ECITB.
  2. Graduate still in employment, on approved training plan at commencement of 2nd year and evidence of training completed in year 1 provided to ECITB.
  3. Graduate in employment, and evidence of completion of training plan at the end of 2nd year provided to ECITB.

Applying for the funding – process and requirements

To be able to access this funding your company’s graduate training plan must be approved by the ECITB Graduate development grant panel and your graduates must meet specific requirements.

First, your company must submit evidence of how your company graduate training plan will provide training interventions for your graduates in the knowledge, skills and behaviours (KSBs) needed to deliver each work-based activity (WBA) that underpins the learning outcomes in the ECITB’s graduate development grant training framework. The same training intervention can underpin more than one WBA.

The ECITB’s training framework links to the Chartered Engineer standard for the Engineering Council’s UK-SPEC (fourth edition) for providing technical management and leadership (C), communication and interpersonal skills (D), personal and professional commitment to sustainable development and ethics (E3 and E5).

Your graduate development scheme may already link to these competencies.  There are also recommended ECITB training courses designed to support development of some of these key skills.

The scheme that you submit can be a mix of training interventions on and off the job – the key thing is that at the end of the training, supported by this grant, your graduates have undertaken training to gain the KSBs needed to enable them to undertake work that provides evidence of competencies against the UK-SPEC for Chartered Engineer.

It is expected that this training will take around 24 months for the graduate to complete.

Once submitted, your application is reviewed by the ECITB’s Graduate development grant panel to ensure it meets the requirements of the grant (for more information on these requirements see later in this document).

If it does, you will receive notification that your company’s training programme has been approved by the ECITB and you can move to the second stage of the process – confirming eligibility of the graduates to be developed.

Once your company’s graduate framework training plan has been approved by ECITB then you must provide evidence for each graduate that they are eligible to receive this funding.

This  funding  is  available for any engineering graduate who has graduated at either Bachelors or Masters level with an engineering degree which means they are eligible to be put forward for professional development against the  UK-SPEC of the Engineering Council.   For clarity, a list of institutions associated with the engineering construction industry below.  The graduates must also:

a) Be employed by an ECITB in scope company throughout the duration of the training.

b) Have graduated within the last 24 months of starting the ECITB approved scheme.

Funding is  managed through the Membership Services Portal (MSP) and, after the training programme has been approved by the ECITB and eligibility of the graduates confirmed,  an Agreement between the employer & ECITB  is required to be signed by both parties before funding can commence.

Each graduate is entered into the ECITB’s MSP system by your company.  Your designated Account Manager will review the eligibility of each graduate and either approve or defer them.  If approved this will trigger the grant.  If deferred your Account Manager will contact you to discuss.

As the training progresses, interim evidence of each graduate’s individual training achieved at the end of year 1 and planned training for year 2 will be requested.  This evidence must be mapped to the learning outcomes and each work activity as detailed on the following pages.

Again, this is loaded into the MSP and then reviewed by your account manager.

This process is repeated at the end of year 2 where evidence of all training against each learning objective and each work activity must be provided for each graduate in order to be awarded the final completion grant.

Funding remains available for training against competencies A&B which support the technical knowledge of a graduate. This funding would be managed with an ECITB Account Manager in the normal account management meeting and training plan reviews.

The learning outcomes of this scheme will be reviewed and updated annually against UK-SPEC and any new product offerings from ECITB.

British Institute of Non-Destructive Testing (BINDT)

Institute of Measurement and Control (InstMC)

Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineering (CIBSE)

Institution of Royal Engineers (InstRE)

Chartered Institution of Highways & Transportation (CIHT) **

Institute of Acoustics (IOA)

Chartered Institution of Plumbing & Heating Engineering (CIPHE) **

Institute of Materials, Minerals & Mining (IoM3)

Chartered Institution of Water & Environmental Management (CIWEM)

Institute of Physics (IOP)

Energy Institute (EI)

Institute of Physics & Engineering in Medicine (IPEM)

Institution of Agricultural Engineers (IAgrE) **

Institution of Railway Signal Engineers (IRSE) **

Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE)

Institution of Structural Engineers (IStructE)

Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE)

Institute of Water

Institute of Cast Metals Engineers (ICME) **

Permanent Way Institution (PWI) **

Institution of Engineering Designers (IED)

Nuclear Institute (NI)

Institution of Engineering & Technology (IET)

Royal Aeronautical Society (RAeS) **

Insitution of Fire Engineers (IFE) **

Royal Institution of Naval Architects (RINA)

Institution of Gas Engineers & Managers (IGEM)

The Association of Cost Engineers (ACostE)

Institute of Highway Engineers (IHE)

The Society of Operations Engineers (SOE)

Institute of Healthcare Engineering & Estate Management (IHEEM) **

The Welding Institute

Institution of Lighting Professionals (ILP)

The Chartered Institute for IT (BCS)

Institute of Marine Engineering, Science & Technology (IMarEST)

Chartered Institute for Civil Engineering Surveyors (CICES)

Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE)

** These institutes/institutions are not included in the graduate funding.

Graduate development grant brochure

To apply, please click on the link below and contact your account manager.

Apply Now

FAQ

This is a great opportunity to develop the soft skills of your graduates and claim an ECITB grant.

ECITB recognises the need to develop graduates in the areas of project capability, commercial astuteness, digital leadership etc.  – key areas of the ECITB strategy and also the professionalisation of graduates.

This grant provide the opportunity to train and furnish graduates with knowledge and skills needed to underpin their development en route to becoming a Chartered Engineer.

Training against recognised competencies.  Demonstrate strength of knowledge against competencies C, D, E3 & E5 against UK Spec.

£4,000 over 3 fiscal years. £2K initial grant, £1K mid-term grant and £1K completion grant.

Submitting the company graduate training plan via the online application form to the Graduate approval panel.

It is important that the graduate that is to be funded through the scheme meets the eligibility criteria that enables them to become a chartered engineer in the future and that:

  1. The training interventions for the graduates map to the work-based activities and learning outcomes
  2. The graduates being funded meet the funding criteria – i.e. they must be engineering graduates that are eligible to apply for engineering professional recognition as detailed above on this page.

If the criteria above are met, then, it is likely that the company scheme will be approved by the ECITB GGAS panel.

If the information submitted meets the scheme requirements – in other words  clearly consists of training interventions that meet the knowledge and skills requirements and, the stated evidence to be provided is training certificates or similar, then the scheme will be approved at the relevant GGAS panel meeting.

If however, the scheme submitted fails to meet the requirements, additional information will be requested and the application process will take longer.

Progress is reported at the end of year 1 and at completion on year 2 by uploads of agreed evidence into the MSP.

The UK regulatory body for the engineering profession, it holds the records for over 222,000 accredited UK Engineers, also provides the competency levels for the Engineering profession.  There are 40 Institutes registered under the Engineering Council including IMechE, IChemE, IET, Welding Institute.

There are 5 competencies under UK-SPEC, this scheme links to C, D and E3 & E5:

A – Knowledge and understanding

B – Design and development of processes, systems, services and products

C – Responsibility, management or leadership and demands from industry for improvement.

D – Communication and inter-personal skills  

E – Professional commitment

It has been a tough time for everyone and plans have changed so yes, if training plans have changed, contact and advise your ECITB account manager and they will work with you to agree a solution.