The Professional Development Review (PDR)

Why am I being asked to provide a PDR?

The Professional Development Review (PDR) is the most important part of your
application for professional membership and registration with the Engineering
Council or Science Council. It is your means of conveying to the Institute’s assessors
that you should be considered a competent energy professional, taking into account
all your energy related experience, qualifications and professional development
activities to date. The core competences

 Knowledge and understanding

 Design and development of processes, systems, services and products
 Responsibility, management or leadership
 Communication and inter-personal skills
 Professional commitment

are the same whether you are applying for professional membership on its own or
with registration. If the latter, they have to be expressed as Engineering or Science
competences so that we can access you accurately as Engineering or Science
professionals.

What format should it take?

Your PDR is a freeform statement about you, your qualifications and experience, and
above all, your competence as an energy professional. One of the competences is
“communication”, and via your PDR, our assessors will learn how good a
communicator you are. There is no minimum and maximum length but as a guide
you should aim for between 1000 and 4000 words of English. We do not provide
sample PDRs as everyone’s circumstances are different. Your PDR should have a
logical and sensible structure, determined by yourself, and should not appear merely
as an extended CV or a list of job responsibilities. It should be in chronological or
reverse chronological order so that the assessor can map your development as an
energy professional easily and accurately. It must be written in the first person so
that, throughout, you can demonstrate your own personal achievements rather than
those of your team or organisation.

What should I include?

You should provide a detailed overview of all your energy-related professional

experience, achievements and levels of seniority in the energy sector. Your
qualifications and experience must be expressed in terms of your compliance to the
Assessment criteria listed above and detailed in the relevant membership Guidance
Notes. Your PDR should comprise:

 The reason why you are seeking professional membership of the Energy
Institute and how your job relates to the unique aims and objectives of the EI.

 An overview of your energy-related experiences, achievements and levels of

seniority.

Professional Development Review Guidance

Version 2.4 – October 2014
  A description of each period of employment, providing an insight into your
energy-related roles and responsibilities as well as your achievements
(projects that you have managed, personnel and/or systems that you have
developed, and so on). Give examples of how you managed energy-related
projects with emphasis on the nature of the project, size of the project team,
budgets and outcome. Please include relevant metrics as much as possible.
This provides you with an opportunity to demonstrate how you applied your
knowledge and understanding of energy, energy-science or energy-
engineering as appropriate. As you make your case, you should demonstrate
how specific areas of your experience, education and training relate to
specific competences (A1, B2, C3 etc) in an energy related context. This
means that our assessors will be able to relate your specific circumstances to
the criteria against which they assess you. Unless you do this, they will not be
able to tell how fully you meet the requirements of a competent energy
professional.

 Reference to any technical societies/panels that you belong to with an insight

into your achievements. Information on your membership of other
professional bodies should also be recorded.

 Details of your past CPD activities and information on your future plans, i.e.
how you plan to maintain your competence. Failure to include a detailed
CPD plan could lead to your application being returned.

Can I attach any supplementary information?

As annexes you may provide your current roles and responsibilities, list
technical/research papers you have authored and provide other information you feel
will support your submission. The accent however should be on quality rather than
quantity.

PDR checklist

Is your PDR in the first person?

Is your PDR in your own words and based on your own experience?
Is your PDR in chronological / reverse chronological order?
Is your PDR about the right length?
Does your PDR communicate precisely and concisely what you want to say?
Does your PDR demonstrate a connection with the unique aims and interests of
the Energy Institute?
Does your PDR place a clear emphasis on your connection to energy?
Does your PDR make reference to the Competences and Commitment
statements?
Does your PDR demonstrate your commitment to energy professionalism and
your personal responsibilities?
Does your PDR include details of past and future energy related CPD
Does your PDR Attribute any quotations or paraphrased material used in your
answers?

Professional Development Review Guidance

Version 2.4 – October 2014